


The Dark Rose

by thatcoolguy17



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Assassins, Detective AU, Drama, F/M, Many Deaths, Multi, Mystery, Police, Presidential Candidate, Romance, Slight Humor, a bit of politics, bruh, how many tags do i have to add so people can read this?, tbh, underrated asf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-05-18 10:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 63,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5925520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcoolguy17/pseuds/thatcoolguy17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern AU. When contracted to kill presidential candidate Natsu Dragneel, the assassin Erza Scarlet just scoffs and believes this to be an easy task. That's until she actually meets the man himself. Erza now finds herself confused and conflicted at the matter. Will she still be able to kill the man she's falling over? Or would both of their worlds crash and collide? Rating may change through the course of the story,</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this story to Red's new album, Of Beauty and Rage, which gave me the inspiration and ideas for this story, well sort of…
> 
> Author's Note: This is my new Natza/Nerza AU Story. It is going to be very different from my other stories and personally, I think this might be my favorite story so far I've been working on. The rating on the story might change as well, so be wary of it… unless you don't mind it, then okay. And probably a few instances of OOC will occur so be advised as well. (I'm still trying to pass the majority of my other stories here so it might take a while.)
> 
> Alright, I hope you enjoy this. Now, for story time…

_The City of Magnolia; a magnificent sight to behold. In the day, its streets are filled with the joys of children, men and women, ranging from any age. The sound of cars honking their way to their jobs or homes. But in the night, the city that is so filled with joy and hope is gone…_

"Huh… huh…" A shadowy figurine huffed and puffed as he ran through the woods.

The full moon's light was enough for the shadow to see and run through the forest without much trouble. He finally reached the end of the trail, making out to an open field with high tall grass. "…huh… I think… I finally… lost her…" He fell to his knees, soon followed by falling and laying down on the grass.

"Oh did you now?" His eyes widened and his spine tingled with fear as he heard the menacing but innocent tone of voice. But in which direction?

"You-You're NOT HUMAN AT ALL!" He quickly got up from his laid position, continuing his run. Sadly, his run was cut short when a star like shuriken pierced his leg. "AAH!" He screamed in agony, falling down to ground. "Oh… fuck… _uhuh_ …" He looked at his left leg and saw the shuriken, rapidly breathing with each second he glanced at his injury. For only a short instance, he tried to pull the weapon out of his leg but succumbed to its pain.

"Oh, I'm perfectly human," the voice said once more. "I'm just on a different level than you."

"P-Please!" He started crawled back, looking and begging at the shadowy figure in front of him. "I'll… I'll DOUBLE WHOEVER IS PAYING YOU!" He pleaded his money for his life. "JUST LET ME LIVE!"

"That's cute," the figurine stepped into pale of the moonlight, revealing herself. Long scarlet hair that matched that of soaked blood, a nice curvy body covered in black light battle armor with matching gloves and boots, stood right in front the man while holding a Sai in her left hand. She then pointed the sharp edge of her Sai near the man's throat. "But I don't take offers from the people I've been contracted to kill." And in a single horizontal slash to his throat, the soul in the man's body ceased to exist. "Sorry."

…

"Who do we have here?" A blonde spiky haired detective wearing a trench coat and dark sunglasses, asked as he entered the open field with another officer who escorted him to the crime scene.

"Oh, you're in for a surprise, Detective." The officer fixed his hat as he walked and navigated his superior around the tall grass.

After walking for several minutes, they finally made it to the victim's location where the METs have already started their initial investigation. "Oh no…" The detective put his right hand over his forehead, realizing exactly who the victim was.

"Yup," a long green haired male MET near the corpse said. "The victim is our lovely corrupt CEO of Grimoire Heart Industries, Precht Gaebolg or like his co-workers like to call him, _Hades_."

"So much for the nickname," a female MET snickered on the choice of the nickname. "I don't remember the brother of Zeus embezzling from their own company and having his own wife murdered and still getting away with it."

"The media is going to kill us..." The detective wiped away a few drops of sweat that dripped from his forehead.

"And that my friends, is why I don't trust our Justice system." another MET, a blue haired fellow with a strange tattoo over his face, said as he started to put away some of his equipment.

"Can we cut the chit chatter, people?" The detective was rather impatient as he tried to shorten the METs side conversation.

"Sorry boss." The three said in unison.

"Ok, now tell me how the poor bastard died." The detective took out a small notepad and a pencil.

"As you can see," the green haired MET pointed at the CEO's throat with his right hand in which the detective followed with his eyes. "An incision with an unknown blade was made near the thyroid which severed both anterior and internal jugular veins which caused him to instantly bleed to death. Won't know what type of weapon was used to make the incision without bringing the body back to the lab."

"Alright," the detective finished writing what the MET just told him on his notepad. "Time of death?"

"Not long," the female MET raised the corpse's arm, waving the wrist and bending the elbow part of the arm. "The body is already slowly going to into rigor mortis." She put the arm back down. "I'd put the time of death 10 hours ago, give or take. I can give you an accurate time of death once we have the body back at the lab and done a full autopsy."

"Anything else?" The detective hoped there was more evidence.

"He was running away from someone," the tattooed MET pointed at the shoes. "Other than his expensive clothing, the new shoes seemed to have been worn out already."

"So expensive clothing and his wallet is still intact," the detective added a bit of his own input. "Body dump?"

"I don't think so, the dirt and foliage underneath his shoes makes us conclude that he was probably running near or around here." The female MET answered.

"How long do you think he's been running out here in the woods?" The detective asked, looking around their surroundings."

"Rough estimate… probably no more than 2-3 miles," the tattooed MET looked back at the forest. "My guess is, the poor sod ran through those woods from over there."

"Alrighty, I'll send in a few of the Forensic guys to check out the woods, hopefully they find something else," the blonde detective started to walk back to where he car was parked. "Thanks for the information guys."

"No problem." The three said in unison.

Before going to his car, he walked towards one of the cops. "Before I leave, who called this in?"

"Ugh, three teenage kids who were... trespassing here." Answered one of the cops.

"Figured much, this is private property," the detective sighed. "Where are they now?"

"Down back at the station, Detective Laxus." One of them answered again.

"Good, I'm going to see if they grabbed or saw anything unusual before you guys arrived." Unlike the rest of the grunt cops, Laxus brought his own car to the crime scene. He got his keys from out of his jacket pocket and opened his car door. As he settled down in his seat, he put his keys in the ignition hole, turning it and igniting the car's engine. "See you boys." He bid his farewells and soon hit the road.

**...**

20 almost 25 minutes passed, after making his way through Magnolia's busy streets, Laxus had finally reached his destination; Magnolia Police Department. As he parked near the entrance, he noticed a bunch of huddled up reporters near the entrance's staircase. "THERE'S DETECTIVE LAXUS!" One of the reporters noticed him in his car which prompt the whole group to run and divert their attention towards the ceremonial detective.

"What the..." He lifted his dark sunglasses as the group neared his car.

Without much worry, he got out of his car only to be attacked by the flashing cameras and the reporters shoving their microphones to his face. "Detective Laxus, is it true what they said?" One of the reporters asked.

"True about what?" He put his hand over his face, blocking the harsh lights from hitting his eyes.

"That the victim you found near the woods is Grimoire Hearts' CEO, _Hades_?" The reporter finished her sentence.

"No comment!" As he walked, the group followed still attacking him with questions.

"Are you the lead in the case?"

"Did he really murder his wife?"

"Are you going to bring in the killer even though he or she has done Magnolia City a huge favor by ridding the scumbag of a CEO?"

"Do you have any more leads to his killer?"

Detective Laxus made his way up the stairs, avoiding the everlasting amounts of questions. As he entered, a few of his fellow officers secured the front door, allowing to proceed into the building while the reporters were kept out. "Phew!" He exhaled out a big ball of air from his lungs, finally inside the building.

"Detective Laxus!" A voice from above yelled his named.

He looked up and saw his superior, looking back at him from the balcony in which he stood by. "Chief Jura!" He greeted back.

Jura walked down the stairs and near the entrance where the detective stood by. "What the shell is going on out there?" He asked as he firmly shook the detective's hand. "I hear the victim you found near the woods was that bastard of a CEO, _Hades_. Is it true?"

"Unfortunately for us, yes," Laxus calmly answered his question as he took back his hand. "And apparently, word gets out and quickly at that."

"Ah shit," the chief cursed underneath his breath. "Well I'm going to want you to close this case and fast. I and DEA have your back on this."

"Good, I'm going to need it," he was glad to hear that, especially coming from his superior. "Speaking of the case, where are the delinquents who called it in?"

"In one of the holding cells, why?" Jura confirmed there whereabouts.

"Going to question them a bit before their parents show up and take them back home, if that's alright with you?" He asked him, hoping for some clearance from higher authority.

"Yeah sure, if it helps." Jura patted Laxus on his shoulder, parting ways with the detective.

And with that, Laxus headed towards the holding cells in the lower floors. He used the stairs instead of the elevator to get their faster. "Hey officer," Laxus greeted the officer who was in charge of looking after the holding cells. "I'm here to see the teenagers from the crime scene."

"Go right ahead, there at the last one to your right." The officer affirmed him.

Laxus continued to walk, this time at a slower pace. "Oh it's you three." He finally made it to their cell, realizing who the three trespassers were.

"Detective Laxus," the only teenage boy in the trip greeted him. "It's good to see you."

"Romeo," he greeted back. "Wendy, Chelia." Greeting the rest of the trio. "So what? Is your new gimmick trespassing on private property?"

"Hey, it's not our fault that the piece of land didn't have a sign that specifically said _Private Property, PLEASE DO NOT TRESPASS_!" Chelia retorted as she sat on the bench with her arms crossed around her chest.

"Yeah, we weren't exactly trespassing," Wendy started to explain what exactly they were doing there. "We were just doing a little exploring. That's all."

"In that part of town?" He had an expression on his face that a disapproving parent would have. "Anyways, that's not exactly why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?" A puzzled look loomed over the teens faces.

"Did you guys see anything or took something from the crime scene?" He finally asked his primary question towards the teens.

"If we don't say anything, are we charged with obstruction of justice?" Romeo crossed his arms over his chest, having an amusing smile as he trolled the detective.

"FOR GOD SAKES! ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!" He yelled at them, hoping that convinced them from saying another ravishing thing.

"No!" Chelia and Romeo retorted back in unison.

"Wendy?" Laxus turned his attention towards the bluenette, looking at her while she stood inside the cell in silence.

"Did you take something from the crime scene Wendy?" The pinkette asked, putting her hand over her friend's shoulder.

"Well..." Wendy put her hands behind her back and started to rock her body back and forth while staring down at the dirty cell floor.

"Did you see or grab anything at the crime scene?" Laxus repeated his question once more, hoping the young lass answered it.

"There was this..." Wendy took her hands from out of hiding, revealing a flower of some sort. "It's a black rose. I took it off the man's body. It just laid there on top of him... why should such a rare and beautiful flower be placed on top of that worthless body?" She handed the flower through the cell holding bars and gave it to the detective.

"Could be some type of calling card..." He brought the flower closer to his face, inspecting every side of it. "I should probably take this over to forensics." He reached into his pocket, taking out an evidence bag he had.

"DON'T PUT IN A BAG!" Wendy flailed her arms up and down the jail's steel bars in hopes of taking back what she had first. "YOU'LL RUIN IT!"

"Alright, alright!" The detective put his hands above his head in defeat and placed his small evidence bag back into his pocket. "Geez…"

"You tell those guys over there at Forensics to not mess with the plant, alright?" Wendy requested to the blonde.

"Fine." Laxus soon walked away, heading towards his next location.

"Well who knew you could be such a bad girl, Wendy?" Chelia started to tease her.

"Shut it."

…

Now in a different part of the building, Laxus was now approaching the Forensics Department. As he neared the end of the hall, he can hear the TV from all the way out here. He opened and entered.

"… _as the Presidential Race continues, Democratic Representative, Natsu Dragneel leads the polls by 15% followed by the Republican Candidate, Azuma Corazon. In other news, the body of-"_

"Hey," Laxus said, interrupting a rather large man's attention away from the TV. "Droy, where's your boss?"

"Oh, hey there Detective Laxus," the large man took several seconds to get up. "Oh, um, Levy and Jet went out to get something for us to eat." He saw that the blonde detective move around his head, looking everywhere around the lab.

"Oh, just here to drop by something for her to see," he told him. "This little fella."

Droy looked at what Laxus held up near his face; a black rose. "Wow, is this real?"

"What's real?" A new feminine voice entered their conversation. Both men turned to the door, seeing a short bluenette female bringing in a few boxes of what seemed like donuts while her partner, a dark haired tall man held up a few more as well walked in.

"Oh, hey there Levy," Laxus tipped his hat as a manner of greeting her. "And I was talking about this." He then showed her what he showed to Droy.

"Is that a black rose?" Jet asked as he placed the pile of doughnut boxes he had on one of the counters while eyeing the little gem Laxus had.

Levy had done the same, now walking towards Laxus for a closer inspection. "Holy shit, this is real!" She took the lovely plant from his palms, for better perspective on the matter. "Where did you find this?"

"At a crime scene." He simply told her.

She quickly placed it on a table and turned on a table lamp, concentrating it's light solely on the rose. "The _Hades_ one?"

"It's all over the goddamn news, isn't it?" He facepalmed showing a bit of stress.

"Yeah," she turned her attention back to the flower at hand. "Anyways, this rose is very rare. An endangered plant at that as well."

"So is it rare enough to trace it back to anyone?" He asked her.

"I don't know, maybe you should try your luck with that information down with the computer analyst," she said. "Exactly where did you find the plant at?"

"The little girl I took it from said she had found it on top of the dead body." He explained.

"So like a calling card it was left on him?" She continued with her own questions.

"Yeah." He said.

"Well I can't really help you here," she sighed, hoping to had find something on the rose. "But if it is a calling card, like I said, go and talk to a computer ananlyst, one of them should help you and find a hit or two if this was repeated."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he scratched and massaged his right side of his neck. "Well I guess I'll be seeing you guys later if we uncover more evidence."

"Right," Levy waved goodbye as did Jet and Droy. "Oh one more thing before you leave."

"And what's that?" He stopped near the door.

"Can I preserve the plant in the meantime?" She asked him.

"Knock yourself out kiddo."

…

In the beaches near the city, a familiar red haired woman laid down on a convertable white lounge chair, in her black matching bikini revealing her curvy elegant body. She enjoyed what it had offered and that was it's silence. " _Vroom!"_ Suddenly, her android phone that was placed near her belly, interrupting her small vacation she gave herself.

She quickly answered it and placed the phone near her ear. "Haha! Well done, it's already all over the news!" A man's voice was heard from the other side.

"Wasn't even that hard to kill the bastard," she lowly said. "Anyways, it's not really why you called is it?"

"You have a new contract there." He told her.

"You know I don't stay in one city for that long, right?" She repeated her policy once more.

"Yeah, yeah, but the contract is rather good." He tried to convince her once more.

"Ugh, guess I have no choice do I?" She sighed, raising her white flag of surrender. "Who's the target?"

"Presidential Candidate, Natsu Dragneel."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Thanks for the positive reviews guys, really appreciate it them. And as I promised, here's the next chapter, so enjoy… 
> 
> One more thing before the chapter starts, I know that in this story Natsu is a Presidential candidate but the politics and stuff would be reduced to a slight minimum. 
> 
> That's about it, story time now...

“Can you ring that by me one more time?” She quickly sat up, now fully aware of her current contract.

“You heard me the first time,” his voice lowered a bit through the line. “But since you were probably startled by the name, I'll tell you again.” He coughed before he could repeat himself. “Your target is Presidential Candidate Natsu Dragneel.”

“I know that!” She yelled through the phone, startling the people around her in the beach. She lowered her voice once more, “But why such a high risk target!?”

“Do I detect a hint of fear in your tone, Erza?” He tried tried another way to persuade the red head to take the contract.

“You wish!” She elevated her tone, a step up for confidence.

“There's the confident Erza I taught to kill.” His tone quickly changed to that of a pleasant one.

“So what's the plan?" A small scent of eagerness was laced in her voice.

"Today, Mr. Dragneel is hosting a party," he began. "Our lovely acquaintance has already sent you an invitation. As usual, the envelope with your invitation to Mr. Dragneel's party should be in the same drop box as before; near Magnolia Central Park." He stopped for a second, hoping Ezra wasn't lost as he spoke. "The address to the party and the time it starts is in the invitation. Now, any questions?"

"Not really." She simply answered.

"One more thing, Erza." He said, before either one of them had the intention trying to hung the phone.

"What is it, Jellal?" She asked, not really interested any more in the conversation.

"Don't fuck up." He simply warned her.

"When have I ever fucked up?" She chuckled at his slight warning.

"I mean it," She could hear his tone change back to his serious one. "This isn't a dumbass business man like Hades, this is a Presidential Candidate." He continued. "He would most likely have guards and such, so take it nice and slow."

"I always do."

...

Back at Magnolia Metro Police Department, Detective Laxus had reached his next location and that was down at Autopsy in the basement. He had received a call from his one of his fellow MET, one that seemed important enough for him make him go there. He reached the last floor using the HQ's main elevator and walked down the hallway and into the cold temperature room. "Alr-"

"I would believe Detective Laxus would be interested to hear my findings first, Freed!" The female MET shouted to her long green haired co-worker.

"What!? He'd be more interested to hear my findings first, Evergreen!" He retorted back towards the other MET.

"Now, now, I would believe he'd want to hear my findings first!" The MET with the weird tattoo stepped in between both co-workers needless argument.

"Shut up Bickslow!" Both Evergreen and Freed shouted back at the other MET in unison.

The detective stood there at the door in silence while he saw the trio bicker amongst each other. Amongst the typical yelling, came the hair pulling and the usual immature actions you would see small children do to each other. "Ahem!" The detective cleared his throat, alerting the trio of his presence.

"Oh hey there Detective..." Evergreen weakly said as she had a small amount of Freed's hair in one hand, pulling him while the other hand had occupied the face of Bickslow.

"How long have you been standing there?" Freed sweat-dropped, still having one fistful on Bickslow's gut while the other hand pulled Evergreen's ear.

"Since the yelling started." He put his arms around his chest, disappointed to see his colleagues treat each other like children at a daycare.

"We can explain this..." Bickslow weakly laughed as he both arms near his co-workers stomach, preventing them from killing each other.

"Yeah yeah, get your heads out of your asses and tell me what you found!" He yelled at them. Like a sergeant to his soldiers, the three Medical Examiners quickly straightened out awaiting further instructions from the detective. "Now, Evergreen, you first."

"I have the official time of death now," she said, showing the detective to the corpse on the Autopsy table. "Hades died approximately around 12 to almost 1 a.m."

"Alright," like he did at the crime scene, he took out his pen and little notepad, scribbling down the information. "Now, Freed, tell me what you found."

"Okay," he went back to the incision near the corpse neck. "Based on what I gave Levy to trace, the weapon was made out of both silver and metal." He continued. "And based on the mold I made out of the cut, only a few weapons come close, in particular, the best ninja weapon: the Sais."

"That's good work," Laxus now turned his attention to the last Medical Examiner. "Now, Bickslow, what do you have for me?"

"From what I found underneath the man's shoes, I found out that the Forest near where he was found was not the only place he had visited," Bickslow took away his attention from the body and now on a clipboard which had the contents he found underneath Hades' shoes. "What does tomato sauce, cheese and flatbread crumbs tell you?"

Laxus raised an eyebrow at Bickslow. "Pizza?"

"Yup, I'm going out on a limb here and say that our victim may have visited a pizza restaurant before getting his necked sliced." Bickslow put his clipboard back down.

"He could've just accidentally stepped on it," Evergreen rolled her eyes, taking away the spotlight from her colleague. "Besides, I still have to open him up and check his stomach contents."

"We're still doing our initial autopsy on the body," Freed said to the detective. "So it's still going to take us a while before we leave Evergreen with the gooey stuff inside the body."

"Very well," Laxus tipped his hat, now leaving the three to bicker once again like children. "I'll be seeing your report later."

He left the three to themselves, now going to a different part of the building.

After several minutes, he made his way to the Computer Forensics part of the building. The room was filled with many computers as the name implied. He looked for a specific Analyst that he had worked with several times in the past.

There; a man with Golden struck hair and typical grunt styled cop uniform. "Oi, Hibiki." Laxus walked over to the man's computer.

"Hmm," the man's eyes were taken off his computer in a glimpse of a second, looking in at the direction his name was called. "Oh, Detective Laxus is it now, right?" He remembered the blonde, back when he was still one of the grunts as well.

"Yup, been a while since we last worked together hasn't it?" Laxus stood right next to Hibiki and his computer, greeting and shaking hands.

"You here for something, Detective?" Hibiki asked.

"Ugh yeah, I was wondering if you can look up something for me." Laxus now faced the computer. All he could see were a bunch of gibberish numbers and sequences on the screen. He was still in awe whenever Hibiki could actually understand most, if not, all the numbers.

"Well if you wanted to look up something, why didn't you just try Google on your phone?" Hibiki joked around.

"Ha ha ha," with a hint of sarcasm, Laxus mocked his laugh. "Don't act like a smartass, I'm not in the mood."

"You're working the Hades case, aren't you?" Hibiki quickly jumped to that assumption.

"Yeah," Laxus groaned. The press, the Police Chief and the rest of the department was crawling near his neck, stressing about as he quickly tried to close the case up. "Anyways, I need you to run up a check on Black Roses, anyway near recent dead victims."

"Black Roses? Ok, got it," Hibiki placed his hands on his keyboard and typed away. In less than seconds, the screen no longer had the gibberish numbers Laxus couldn't understand and running up a search in the database. And like that, already several hits. "Alright let's see here..." Hibiki scrolled down through the list.

"What you got?" Although, Laxus was looking at the screen, he was hoping for the man's input on the search.

"Well, there have been several cases around Fiore with a Black Rose near or at a crime scene-" Just as he was scrolling down, a box with an alert showed up on the screen. "What the-?"

"What happened?" Laxus asked.

"Apparently, the search is being monitored by our friendly ABC brethren." Hibiki continued to work on in attempt of getting back to their search.

"Let me guess; the FBI?" From the sound of his voice, Laxus wasn't pleased with the results.

"Detective Laxus!" Another voice called out to him, diverting both men away from the computer and back at the entrance of the room.

"Chief Jura!" Laxus got up from his kneed stance and saluted his boss. From the expression on his boss's face, he could tell that the news he was bringing was in no way good.

"Why did I just receive a call from the FBI?" Jura slowly walked towards the men's position.

"I take it I have to tell you what I have found so far..." With his left hand, Lacus scratched behind his neck, nervous to what he has to tell the man in charge.

"And how does the Hades case cause an interest to the FBI?" Jura crossed has arms around his chest.

"Well you see, there was this Black Rose on his body, left as a calling card for the... killer." He tried saying it in the most sensitive way about his findings.

"A calling card? Are you implying that our killer is actually a damn Mercenary?" Jura's left eyebrow slightly twitched at the news.

"Assassin, sir." Hibiki corrected him. So much for trying to stay out of the conversation between the two.

"Oh, fuck." If Jura had any hair, he would've already ripped it out by now, sadly though he settled with just harshly rubbing his bald head.

"Sorry, sir." Laxus now scratched the side of his face.

"Ugh," Jura sighed. "No worries, at least we can just give this case to the FBI and call it a day."

"Wait what!?" Laxus was startled at what the Chief had just said. "We're giving our case to the damn FBI!?"

"What did you expect? It's their jurisdiction," Jura started to walk away, but still speaking loud enough for his Detective to hear. "Besides, if it's an assassin, he or she are long gone by now."

"We can't just give up like that, sir!" Laxus ran right in front of the Chief, stopping him in his tracks.

"Stand down, Detective!" Jura knew how Laxus felt about it. It made his department feel like an embarrassment not looking into a case like this. "As much as it pains me, it's the FBI's jurisdiction now!"

"Bu-"

"No buts, and that's final!" Jura soon left, leaving the detective standing there in front of the Computer Forensics working.

"Ouch." Hibiki lowly said.

"God dammit!" Laxus cursed underneath his breath.

"Laxus!" Jura called out once more.

Laxus turned to face the man, still unhappy at the choice. "Yes?"

"Don't forget that you and a few of you're men are watching over the Party at Presidential Candidate, Natsu Dragneel's house." Jura reminded him of a task he had in the next few hours.

"Right, how could I forget..." He sighed and rolled his eyes.

...

"Invitation, please?" The muscled doorman asked the scarlet haired woman. He bit his lower lip, looking at how unnervingly sexy the woman was as she looked through her small purse for the invitation.

Tied up ponytail, a beautiful yet seductive black dress with matching heels and the rest of her natural beauty. Yup, that was Erza for you. "Ah, here it is." She took out her invitation, showing it for the doorman.

"Alright, ma'am, you can go right in." He cleared her. Now his attention was back at the line of people who waited in line.

Erza went inside. The main room was already filled, from politicians to economists to even the bodyguards and police alike. And right off the bat was it already giving her trouble to find her target. Typical, she could easily distinguish who the cops were as they tried to blend in with the crowd. Just makes my job a bit more interesting.

She walked up to a few men who were already intoxicating themselves with beer and the fanciest wine alike. "Excuse me, do you know where Mr. Dragneel is?" She asked, hoping to get an answer from them.

"You're too pretty... to be... a journalist..." One of them said as he threw out a few hiccups in between his sentence. "Are you like his... Booty call?"

"HAHAHA!" The other men laughed as he their fellow friend said that.

"Nevermind." She soon walked away from the men as they showed their true colors as pigs.

She continued to scan the room, hoping to find a someone that could give her the info she needed. That didn't work out as planned... She trailed through her thoughts as she did walking around the people. Isn't that the other Presidential Candidate? From across where she stood, Erza could see Asuma, the man who is competing for the presidential suite as well, drinking a few shots by himself on the table.

She walked right over to him. "Excuse, would you mind pointing me to Mr. Dragneel?" She asked.

"Are you some type of journalist or something?" He finished his last shot.

"Is it really that much of your concern?" She retorted back.

"Feisty," Asuma got up from his seated position and slowly walked the remaining feet away from him and the scarlet haired woman. "I like my women with a bit of fight in them."

"You're not my type." She humorously smiled at him.

"Well if you're looking for the pink haired fella, head right upstairs," he sat back down. "He should be in his studies."

"His studies? What kind of man promotes a party yet wastes his time on reading?" Astounded to hear where her target was, Erza started to walk away.

"Dunno, but if you're going to seduce him; don't," he gulped down another shot. "The man has a fiery glare that'll get the seducer seduced instead."

"I'd like to see him try." She was rather confident, both in her appearance and in succeeding her mission.

"If you say so." His last words before she gone up the stairs.

As much to her dismay, she should've asked the man clearer instructions as to where the pinkette was. Walking around the hallways, seeing men and women coming and go, it was impossible to pinpoint where he was in this maze of doors. Should've known that this was too easy... Finally, just as she was about to give up, she found what seemed to be the pinkette's personal library.

"Mr. Dragneel?" She called out.

"Up here." The pinkette revealed his location.

She looked to her side and found another set of stairs. Making her way up, she found another set of doors, this time leading to a balcony. "Mr. Dragneel?" She said as she walked out into the balcony.

"Hello," He greeted her, putting the book down on the small desk and getting up from his lounge chair. "Sorry about the Party, my assistant said that it was good for getting a few more votes here and there. Do I know you?"

"Not yet, but I sure would like to get acquainted." She smiled, finally getting to see the man in flesh.

"Just one question." He walked towards her.

"And what's that?" She asked.

"Are you here to kill me?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Crap, didn't think I was going to be busy for a bit. Sorry for not updating the story in awhile.
> 
> Anyways, I finally finished my new chapter of Everything's Fine, Right? Which is my other Modern AU Naza story, so check that out if you will.
> 
> Again, sorry for leaving you at a cliffhanger. Apologies for that.
> 
> I was also thinking of adding some sort of lemon in the near chapters, so the rating will definitely change to that of M, so a little heads up in case that isn't your cup of tea.
> 
> Ok, shutting up now…

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Erza was stunned. Actually, she was very surprised at the bold question the pinkette had asked her. Had her cover been blown that quickly?

Natsu cleared his throat before repeating himself. "Are you hear to kill me… with a bunch of questions?" His question was now clearer and adjusted.

"Wait, what?" Erza now was confused. Why on Earth would this man believe she would ask a bunch of questions? The thought of keeping up a conversation with just a bunch of questions somewhat baffled her.

"You're a reporter, aren't you?" Natsu explained his predicament in that sole question.

"Oh, heaven's no. I'm not a reporter, common misconception." The scarlet haired woman lightly chuckled. Although, throughout the party, she has been utterly confused to be that of a reporter, she finally denied that to someone.

"Oh, I'm very sorry for that misguided assumption ma'am," he gave out a wry laugh of his own, embarrassed at his earlier assumption. "Then who are you?"

A question that also lingered in the back of her own head. What exactly was she if she wasn't a reporter? The ruse of her being a reporter had worked on the likes of Hades and others she was asked to eliminate, but now that she denied that career occupation, what was she now? "Well for starters, I haven't properly introduce myself, my name is Erza. Erza Scarlet."

"Erza? Well that's a beautiful name suited for the likes of you," Natsu grabbed her hand and like a gentleman, he kissed the back of her hand. "Pleased to meet you. I take you know who I am by now, right?"

"Natsu Dragneel, of course," at this point in his campaign, everyone should know his name or at least heard of the name here and there. "And to answer your earlier question, I'm here for a job actually."

"A job?" Natsu turned to look at the view of the rest of the city. A lovely sight to see in the in the night as it glowed. "And what job would that be?"

Erza continued to think on her feet, something she usually didn't like to do when she's a bit off her game. "I'm here for-"

"Wait a minute, you're here for the Security job aren't you?" Natsu cut her sentence short, staring back at her.

"… Yeah." As an assassin, she would be more than qualified to pass the basic steps in filling in the guard shoes.

"Not trying to be sexist or anything but you don't seem like the type to-"

"I can perfectly do what any man can do, even better." She now cut him mid sentence. She never liked the idea of man being better than woman.

"Actually, I was going to say, take a bullet for me." Judging by the way she immediately reacted, Natsu was hoping he didn't step out with the wrong foot.

"Oh," she covered her mouth with her right hand. The rest of the sentence didn't sound as insensitive as the millions of countless times she's heard a man start out with "Not to sound sexist." "I should apologize for the rudeness."

"Rudeness? I'm the one that was acting quite rude at first," he gave out a small wry laugh. "I should be the one apologizing to you."

"Your sentence wasn't quite sexist as you or I thought," she clarified. "And my jumping to an assumption about it was."

"How about we just forget about this whole topic and start over again?" Natsu asked her.

Erza simply nodded and gave him a heartwarming smile. "I would gladly like that."

A few hours passed by and both the pinkette man and the scarlet haired woman were sitting on the balcony's outdoor table and chairs, continuing to converse while having a glass of wine.

"So Ms. Scarlet, how do you like the view?" Natsu stared back into the city of Magnolia.

"It's quite lovely if I do say so myself," Erza slowly rotated her glass around her fingers, moving the little bit of water that remained in her glass. "Why do you ask?"

"It is very beautiful but…" He stood up from his chair and walked slowly to the edge of the balcony. Not only his eyes but his whole body now faced the direction toward the city.

"But what?" She raised an eyebrow as she gulped down the last bit of wine.

"Underneath it's beauty lays it's true ugliness," he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them once more. "The violence, the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, the homeless… They call this city, the City of Hope, but where is it when the majority of it's people suffer?"

"Is the first thing when you become President, helping this city?" She asked him.

He turned back to look at the seated Erza before him. "Not just this city," he finished his drink before finishing his sentence. "But every city in this country that is plagued with the same symptoms."

"That is a bold statement that many leaders before you have said as well," she retorted. "And still this nation has that same very plague."

"While that is very true, I still can't help but think that maybe they never tried hard enough," he now sat back down on his seat. "But whatever."

"Maybe," she glanced at him before finishing her wine. She smacked her lips, savoring the flavor of the wine in her mouth before speaking once more. "Maybe not."

"Huh, I guess." He took out a tiresome breath.

A cloud of silence now lingered above both Erza and Natsu. Natsu sat in his seat, thinking of what next to say while Erza played with her cup, moving it around with her fingers.

As he was about to break the silence, his feline companion had beaten him to the punch. "Meow." A blue and white furred cat jumped onto the table, startling both of them.

"What a beautiful cat you have here." Erza, without hesitating, slowly put her hand on the cat's head, petting it. The cat enjoyed being pet as his purr indicated, especially behind the ears where Erza now shifted her hand to.

"His name is Happy," Natsu looked at the interaction between the two. "I'm surprised he didn't try to scratch you. He rarely let's a stranger pet him."

"I love cats," Erza said. Happy now laid on his side, wanting the scarlet haired lady to rub and pet his belly. "I've never seen a cat like yours though… Happy right?"

"Yeah." Natsu answered.

"How long have you had him?" The cat now walked away, diverting it's attention somewhere else, leaving the two be alone once more.

"7 years, since he was born." Natsu answered again. It was nice to answer questions that weren't part of his campaign of some sort.

"Wow, that long huh?" Erza never owned a pet of her own, so she couldn't imagine what kind of memories Natsu and his cat, Happy, have accumulated over the span of those 7 years.

"Never had a pet of your own?"

Suddenly, the sound of Natsu's voice changed to that of a long forgotten voice Erza had never thought she would hear again: her mother's.

A faint memory of herself followed, seeing the face of her mother when Erza herself was a small 7 year old. It was faint, but the memory gave her enough information that she was inside a pet store with her mother.

That's where it all stopped. She suddenly found herself back into reality where Natsu now waved his hand in front of Erza's face. "You okay there Erza?" He took his hand out of Erza's sight.

"Y-Yeah." She stuttered, followed by putting her left hand's two fingers near her head as if trying to take away a headache that was never there to begin with.

"You sure?" Natsu asked once more, hoping her answered change.

"Yeah," she took in a small amount of air. "I just had a little flashback about something, that's all."

"Alright," he didn't want to push things more further than they are. He looked at his watch and saw the time. "Shit!"

Erza looked over to Natsu to see what the fuss was all about. "What?"

"I literally almost forgot to deliver my exit speech to the party," he took Erza's hand and quickly dashed with her to the main room in which the party was centered in. "Let's go!"

Dashing his way with the lovely Erza at his hand, Natsu finally made it back to the party before everyone started to leave. As much as he tried to ignore the stench, the smell of booze and other sorts of alcoholic beverages reeked in the room. It didn't stop him from delivering her speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen…"

As soon as he started his speech, Erza was back inside her mind, wondering what that flashback was all about.

She never knew her mother. All she could remember growing up was Jellal raising her. Raising her to become the so called monster she is now.

She now started to question herself more. Question everything Jellal has told her. Did he lie to her? About not knowing her mother? Is her mother still alive? All these questions continued to bombard her all because of a one simple question that Natsu had asked her.

She continued to peer into her thoughts, barely listening to Natsu when she noticed something in the crowd; a masked person with a gun pointed towards their balcony. "GET DOWN!" She reacted, quickly tackling Natsu to the floor as the sound of a bullet was heard in the crowd.

The guests, mainly the women, shrieked and screamed. A few ducked and covered themselves while others scattered when the shot was fired which made the perfect cover for the person to mask with.

"Shots fired! I repeat, shots fired!" A familiar blonde detective said as he spoke into his walkie-talkie to communicate with a few of his cops that are stationed right outside the house. "Culprit may or may not be blending in with the crowd to sneak out!

He looked around the room and saw that the once full room now had half the guests in it. **The bastard must've gone out with the others!** He quickly, assuming he's right, went out the main door.

He spotted a few of his guys. "Boss, we managed to stop the majority of the guests from leaving but…"

"You think he or she managed to escape?" He asked them.

"Yeah, a lot of people left in their cars boss, I think by now the person managed his escape."

He sighed. He had feared that was the case.

…

A few minutes passed, the mansion was now a crime scene for the police to investigate.

Laxus was the head detective on the case as he was there to somewhat witness the crime. He began the investigation with asking Natsu and Erza questions. "Alright Mr. Dragneel, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions. To you and your… Mistress?" He looked away from his little notepad to looking at the astonishingly beautiful Erza.

"Personal Security Guard." The two clarified in unison.

"Pardon?" As much as he wanted to believe what they told him, Erza didn't really look like a common bodyguard.

"She's my security guard." Natsu repeated himself once more.

"I find that very hard to believe." Laxus had no moods for games at the moment, even if it wasn't one.

"It's her first day," Natsu let out a small giggle. Laxus grunted at him. "Oh come on Laxus, she is my guard, I just hired her not too long ago."

"Whatever…" He sighed, continuing his questions. "Anyways, do you know who tried to kill you today?"

"Not that I know of to be honest with you," Natsu didn't really have a list per say of people who hated him or had urges to choke the living life out of him. "Probably just your typical protester who are mad with me or something."

"Okay, Ms.…"

"Scarlet. Erza Scarlet." She finished his sentence, now asking her questions about the shooting.

"Did you see the shooter?" He asked her.

"Not too well, a black hat with a matching bandana covered the person's face but…"

"But what?" The detective waited for her to finish her sentence.

"The eyes, they definitely looked feminine to me." She said.

"Are you telling me that the shooter was a woman?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Definitely." She assured him of that.

"Alright I guess," he placed his small pencil in between his right ear. "Going to have to interview the rest of these guys now, enjoy your evening."

"Same to you," Natsu said as Laxus walked away from them. "Gee, who would've thought that something like this would've happened."

"Convenient." Not really paying attention to Natsu, Erza looked over towards the crowd. A shooter like that would've never had left the building, her assassin gut told her and the eyes… She felt like she knew whose eyes those were.

She continued to give her attention towards the crowd until a white long haired woman stood out from the crowd. The other woman looked comparatively as beautiful as herself. The white haired mysterious woman also had a long dress that was colored blue. And finally her eyes matched those of the ones she saw from the shooter which glanced right back at her. She waved to Erza.

"You know her?" Natsu asked as he noticed the gesture that was pointed towards them.

"Unfortunately, yeah." Erza didn't seem to happy to see her.

The mysterious blonde came towards them. "Erza, I didn't think I'd see you here."

"Mirajane," an irritated tone followed as Erza said the woman's name. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just around the neighborhood." An innocent smile loomed over Mirajane's face but Erza could tell that the smile was just her façade.

"Typical." She rolled her eyes at the excuse.

"I never knew you had a very beautiful friend, Erza." Natsu gave Mirajane a small smile but it was enough for Mira to have a small shade of blush.

"Hello, I'm Mirajane Strauss," she reached out her hand for a handshake. Natsu grabbed it and kissed the backhand oh her hand. "Oh, handsome and charming, Mr. Dragneel. Also, congratulations on winning the democratic nomination."

"Why thank you very much." He appreciated the compliment.

"Well it was nice chatting and all but I actually have a somewhere to be," Mirajane said. She waved to Natsu goodbye and gave Erza a kiss on the cheek where she left her lipstick nark on them. That action was somewhat alarming to Natsu. "Bye now."

"What was that all about?" Natsu now had some questions.

"She was… An old ex, you can say." Erza's gaze locked on to Mirajane until she disappeared.

"Wow," Natsu scratched the side of his face. "I didn't think you'd swing that way."

"I swing both ways okay?" She quickly wiped away the lipstick from her cheek. "Now anymore questions?"

"No." Natsu assured her of that.

"Good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Really hope you like the story so far.
> 
> Also, do not be alarmed at the little hint of Mira*Erza moment there, Mirajane is not there to make a love triangle of any sort. She's planned for something else bigger than this.
> 
> And again, so sorry for updating late. Life is just a bit messy at the moment. Hope the next update doesn't take as long as this one.
> 
> See you guys later.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the long awaited update on The Dark Rose story. I had a few things I had to finish up before starting to write this chapter. There may have been a few times where I was just too lazy to do this on either my computer or phone so yeah, I apologize.
> 
> Nothing else other than that. Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Erza was finally back at the hotel she was staying at. She needed the rest after the whole incident that had happened at the Dragneel political party or whatever the event was. Either way, just thinking of it made her have a minor headache.

She laid on the luxurious Queen sized bed that was all for herself, being an assassin does pay off after all. Even for an assassin however, she would still wear a bright pink, top and bottom, pajamas.

Her arm was over her forehead, now slightly dozing off until she mentally slapped herself, remembering she had to make an important call to someone.

She sat on the bed, grabbed her android phone which was to the right of her on the bed and quickly turned it on. She made her way through her contacts and phone the one she needed to call. She pressed it, now ringing.

She waited a couple of seconds before the other end finally answered. "Yes, Erza?" Not even a proper greeting.

"Well hello to you too, Jellal." Erza greeted back in a way she had mocked him.

"Haha very funny," Jellal's sarcasm was obvious but given the situation, he was in no mood. "I take you're calling because of what had happened at the party, correct?"

"Is it all over the news?" She assumed much.

"Yes, but you know what has me at awe the most though?" He asked her.

She didn't really have nothing in mind to answer with. "No, what is it?"

"The fact that you actually saved the poor sod from the bullet," His voice sounded displeased as his own sentence ended. "If you ask me, you should've let him die right there and then."

"As much as that would've made my job a whole lot easier, couldn't," she remembered the whole thing like a highlight reel, although one she would want to forget instead. "Unfortunately, I'm his new bodyguard. If I had let him die there, the police would've suspected me."

"His bodyguard?" Although it wasn't farfetched for her to be a bodyguard for the next-to-be president, Jellal was baffled. "What happened to being someone's sexy secretary or sexy journalist?"

"I was caught off guard, okay?" There was a first for everything, for Erza though, fucking up a bit on a hit wasn't one of them.

"You know what? Whatever." She didn't have to be there to know he had rolled his eyes at her.

"But this wasn't why I was calling." She wanted to change the subject.

"Why are you calling then?" Jellal asked.

"Mirajane is here." She answered.

"Ah crap," besides Erza, Mirajane is another assassin Jellal had trained since she was little. She was the troublesome of the lot and would intentionally try to mess with other assassin's hit. He also knew that she and Era had a little fling with each other but that was ancient history. "I take she was the shooter, huh?"

"Yeah." She answered.

"I'll deal with her later." By the sound of his voice, he was agitated by the news given to him by Erza.

"Better." She ended the call.

She placed her phone on the small desk next to her desk and proceeded to turn off the desk lamp.

As she laid in the dark though, the lingering memory of her mother was still in her head. What exactly did the memory mean? She barely remembered her, let alone have memories of her.

No matter, like the annoyance of Mirajane, she simply scoffed it away and pulled the covers over her, now falling into deep sleep.

**...**

Back at Magnolia's Police Department, instead of having a nice time sleeping after a long day, Laxus was going to have to stay up late. With all the paperwork and stuff, already was he overworked.

Like most Detectives, Laxus had his own office. It was small to his discomfort and it all feels much more smaller thanks to the bundle of papers on both his desk and on the floor near his desk. "I didn't become a cop to do all this paperwork!" He grabbed the paper he was writing on, crumbled it up into a ball and threw it in the small waste basket in the corner of his room.

He leaned back onto his chair, taking a deep breath before continuing his paperwork. "Goddamit..." He whispered to himself.

"Hey there hotshot!" A familiar petite bluenette entered his small office.

"Oh, hey there Levy." The detective massaged behind his neck with his right arm, not very thrilled to see the forensic scientist in his office but neither eager to see her leave.

"Brought you a coffee and a few donuts." From behind her back, she showed him both the cup of coffee and the bag of donuts, giving it to him.

Laxus stood up and took the delightful treats she had brought him. "Thanks, I needed this, I think." He sat back down.

"Gee, why all this paperwork?" She looked around and saw piles of file work that surrounded her favorite detective.

"The goddamn Dark Rose Investigation." He groaned. His agitation didn't seem to help him with speeding up the paperwork.

"All this paperwork just to transfer all the crap you and your men found at the crime scene?" She scratched the side of her face, astonished at the amount of paper for that case.

"Not all of it is for that case," he took out a few files he had finished and showed it to the petite bluenette. "These are some of the files I had to look over for other cops."

"Don't you only do that if you're looking to get a promotion of some sort?" She asked.

"The Chief is on the verge to retiring and he said if I do this and put in a lot of good work, he can definitely put in a good word in for me." A smile quickly loomed over Laxus' face.

"That's awesome bro!" Levy quickly got herself hyped up over the news.

"Heh, thanks." Laxus said.

"Speaking of good news, the donuts and coffee are not the only things I came here to talk about." She remembered why she was in his office to begin with.

"Oh really?" He was half way done with his treats. He raised an eyebrow at Levy, intrigued at what she came down to tell him.

"Mmhmm, the bullet you recovered from the mansion at the soon to be President of Fiore, Natsu's home, came back with a few hits." She said while looking at her phone where she put all her findings.

"A few hits?" Laxus now had a puzzled look. He had hoped this was a simple case but after hearing what Levy said, he had to fear the worst.

"I sent you a link with all my findings to your email." She said, putting away the phone in her back pocket.

Laxus placed his hand on his computer's mouse and moved it to wake up his computer. A few clicks here and there, his screen showed his emails and specifically the one Levy had sent him. He clicked it and found the findings and the list of in which Levy had told him. "What in-" He stopped mid-sentence.

"Yup, the bullet was fired from an ASP handgun, which was also used in almost 50 unsolved cases around Fiore." She continued on with her findings.

"Are you sure!?" He elevated his voice. He couldn't believe that the simple case now turned into that of an FBI case. Guess more paperwork for him.

"I'm positive." She confirmed.

"C-Couldn't this gun just be sold at a Pawn shop?" A small sweat drop came rolling down the side of his right cheek.

"With the amount of high profiled cases it's been involved in, I highly doubt it," she exclaimed. "You have another assassin in the area."

"And that means more paperwork..."

**...**

Like most people, Natsu hated getting up in the mornings, but thanks to the nagging sound of both his alarm clock and his ringing phone, he knew he had to get up one way or the other from his own comfortable bed. And so he did.

He went from his bedroom to the bathroom where he immediately used the urinal to pee. Afterwards, he looked in the mirror; the usual messy bed hair was shown in the reflection and visible bags under his eyes, showing his exhaustion.

He got a bit of water from the sink, poured it over his hands and rubbed his face with the cold water to refresh himself. He then headed back towards his bedroom.

Natsu did his usual stuff. He took a shower and changed into clothing that suited his next-to-be President status.

After he was done, he looked outside his house where he saw the gray clouded sky and a few police patrol cars staking outside. Didn't surprise him considering what had happened last night.

Leaving his bedroom area, he quickly scurried his way towards the kitchen where his breakfast meal awaited him.

Unlike most well funded people, he doesn't really have maid or a butler of some sort, so he would have to make his own meals to his own liking.

His meals included: a bowl, general cereal, milk and a spoon. Yep, his specialty.

Just as he was about to fill his stomach with the most important meal of the day, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took out his phone and answered. "Hel-"

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" A loud male's voice went into Natsu's right ear.

"Geez, can't a man just eat his cereal in peace?" He said while the phone was a few inches away from his ear.

"You're supposed to hear at your rally!" The man said once more, completely ignoring Natsu's question.

"What rally?" He brought the phone back to his ear. "I don't have a rally until later this afternoon!"

"I bumped us up in the morning! And you have a huge crowd hear at Magnolia's Grand Central Stadium!" The man told him.

Natsu knew the place. It was a baseball stadium that his dad would take him to when he was little. Gosh, it's been long since he set foot in that stadium. "How huge?" He asked.

"The whole stadium along with crowds outside it!" He explained how crowded and huge it was.

"That big?" Magnolia's Grand Central Stadium was the largest Baseball stadium in the country. He didn't quite expect that many people to come hear his speech this morning.

"Oh and your bodyguard, ugh, what's your name again?" Natsu could tell that the man was not talking to him near the end part of his question.

"GIVE ME THAT!" The scarlet haired woman grabbed the phone. "Hello, Mr. Dragneel?"

"Oh, didn't expect you to be there early Ms. Scarlet," he said as his stomach growled. "What's the current situation?"

"The crowd is very eager for your arrival!" She had to speak up, the loud chants of 'Salamander!' in the background made it hard for each other to listen to.

"Huh..." He sat there for a second, finally making the decision of his life, which was to go the rally. "I'll be there in a jiffy!" He yelled through his phone, hoping his lady bodyguard heard him.

"Alright!" She replied, affirming him that she heard him clearly enough.

He hung the phone and quickly dialed another. "Taxi..."

**...**

The large crowd from the stadium chairs to the outside of the stadium itself, continued on with it's chanting. "SALAMANDER! SALAMANDER!"

In a different part of the stadium where the noise still persisted to some extent was where Erza, a few cops from the night before, a few business and political men, and Natsu's secretary named Sting all were huddled.

Unlike yesterday with her alluring dress, she now wore a standard black Kevlar light armor. Thank god she didn't have to go anywhere to get this considering she wears this for her contracts.

Erza was beginning to think that being Natsu's bodyguard was going to be much more of a hassle than she initially anticipated. She was never fond of large crowds and her current predicament was not helping. No matter, she continued to ignore both the sound of the loud chants and the crowd she was in as she was doing earlier.

"Alright, I'm here." The pinkette that everyone awaited for finally showed up and with a bowl of cereal.

"Mr. Dragneel!" News reporters from different channel stations suddenly charged at him and attacked him with questions.

Before they were able to ask however, the lovely Erza managed to get through the crowd undetected and intervened in between both the pinkette and the horde of reporters. "Alright guys, out you go!" She yelled at them.

"I'll answer your questions once I'm done with my speech." Natsu stood behind Erza as he said that.

"Move along now." The cops assigned to Natsu helped guide the news reporters to where the exit is.

"Geez, what took you so long?" Sting asked as he looked at Natsu.

"I took a Taxi." Natsu munched on his cereal.

"You took your food with you?" Erza raised an eyebrow.

"I was starving, alright?" He said before he gulped down the remaining milk in his bowl.

"Alright now, let's go out there now!" Sting told him."

"I'll waiting right here when you're done with that out there." Erza sat back down on the box she was sitting on earlier.

"Oh no you don't," Natsu grabbed her by the hand. "Do you know how crazy that crowd is out there?"

"..." Considering her options at hand, Erza didn't bother to pull herself back. "Fine."

The three walked around the stadium's corridors before finally making it to the podium. Erza couldn't believe the amount of people that surrounded them and the fact that she was in the center of it all.

She stood right next to Natsu, as did Sting. Natsu began to talk into the microphone, beginning his speech. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen!"

"Good morning Natsu Dragneel!" The large crowd said in unity.

A lot of energy from all the people could be felt in their response to the candidate. "You are all pumped to hear me, huh!?" Natsu gave them a smile.

"YES! YES! YES!" As if one yes was not enough for their enthusiasm.

Erza was amazed at the crowd. **To think a man like him would attract this many people at his rally's... I should really be careful how I plan this...** Erza thought to herself.

Suddenly, she found herself in the crowd. Was this one of those sudden flashbacks she was having like back at the political party?

She saw the 7th inning of a baseball game through the eyes of her child self, sitting on man's shoulder whom she can barely remember.

_"Erza, the ball is coming towards us! Catch it!"_ Unlike her first flashback, this time there was dialogue and presumably her father's voice.

And like he had told her, child Erza catches the ball midair in her baseball glove.

As the memory of the baseball being caught in her glove, she immediately came back to reality when mentally slapped herself. She had her left hand over face, still somewhat reliving parts of it.

"-And let this City give us the majority of the people's vote!" Her hearing sense came back as well.

"YEEEAAAHHH!" The crowd loudly cheered.

Erza placed her two right index and middle finger on the side of her head, acting as if she just had a migraine just now.

As the crowd cheered, Natsu turned to look at Erza. He saw the same expression she made back at his political party. He leaned a bit towards her side. "Erza, you okay?" He said lowly enough for her to hear.

"Yeah," she sighed before she turned to look at him. "I was jus-" She stopped mid-sentence before her eyes widened.

"You were just what-"

"Get down!" She tackled him down just before a gunshot fired at them which immediately changed the atmosphere from 100 to 0, real quick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be an asshole and leave this at a cliffhanger.
> 
> I really hope I get to update this before the end of this week if not at least the end of this month. Also, if you're following my other Nerza/Natza stories, I'm also going to be updating those sometime this month as well.
> 
> That's about it. See you later when I update again.


	5. Chapter 5

With her immediate reaction, Erza was able to push her body against Natsu's, dodging the bullet. Both of them fell from the stage and quickly ducked behind 5 to 6 feet of stone, along with Sting, that was placed to make both the stadium and stage higher for the democrat.

The bullet went straight through the mahogany wooden podium, making splinters fly and hit the three on stage. The shot was loud, ceasing everybody's chants and turning them into loud cries and screams.

The hundreds of people that were at his rally suddenly turn to that of zilch as they all hurried to get out stadium as soon as they could. Only a few just ducked down behind their seats.

"You guys okay?" Erza calmly asked.

"I'm good." Natsu panted, almost scared shitless.

Sting trembled with fear. This was the first time something like this happened to him which made him speechless. Still though, he was still well and alive… physically of course.

"You think it's the same person as yesterday?" Natsu asked. He too now was calmed.

An image of Mirajane popped up in Erza's head. "Maybe." Erza knew by know that this was just a game for the white blonde. A game she still has no idea what it's about.

She went on her knees and peeked about, hoping she fled the scene before the cops come. **Now where were you…** She looked at the hole which the bullet made. With her mind, she was able to make a trajectory line to find and pinpoint Mirajane's exact location.

**There!** A few buildings over, a tower that had a window platform. She can faintly see that the blonde assassin had left the sniper behind.

"Okay, I think we're good to go." Erza lifted herself from her hidden position. Natsu and Sting followed closely.

"That was close, thanks for saving me again." Natsu let out an exhausting breath.

"No problem." Erza looked over at where they came through to get to the stage and saw that a few policemen came their way.

"Are you okay, Sting?" Natsu looked over at his secretary. He can see that he was a bit shaken up.

"Can't believe that I almost got shot…" Sting said underneath his breath, shocked at what had just happened.

"You guys alright?" Detective Laxus, the same detective from the party, asked the trio.

"Me and Erza are okay, he's the only one that's shaken up a bit." Natsu pointed at Sting.

"That's good," Laxus looked around the stadium, before reaching into his front pocket and getting his walkie-talkie. "What's the current status, men?"

"We found two of the window washers dead up here in Trenton Bank Inc., building." One of them responded.

"…" Laxus had a moment of silence before he continued. "Anything else?"

"Our shooter left behind their gun and the bullet cartridge as well." The same gun Erza saw from the stadium.

"They left the gun? Why?" Natsu asked.

"What kind of sniper rifle is it?" Laxus asked.

"A customized Barrett."

**A Barrett?** Erza knew almost all of Mirajane's weapons and a Barrett sniper rifle wasn't part of her style. **Strange, as much as she loves guns, she always despised that sniper…** Erza was in her deep thoughts once again. **But still, she is the only other person I know who is in town, what's her play?**

"We're taking the gun to Forensics, maybe Levy can find a fingerprint or two on it."

"Good idea," Laxus ended his transmission and diverted his attention back on to Natsu and Erza. "I think it might be time to halt or postpone some of your speeches, Mr. Dragneel."

"Well after almost getting shot twice in two days, I think that's a great idea." Natsu looked back at Sting, hoping his secretary would agree.

"If it helps, I guess I wouldn't mind changing your schedule." Sting was back to normal.

"Good," Laxus won't have to deal with this anymore for sometime. "I would also keep your bodyguard, Ms. Scarlet, with you at all times."

"Are you okay with that, Erza?" Natsu asked.

Erza quickly came out of her thoughts. "I'm fine with that."

"Okay, just head on outside and there would be a patrol out there waiting for you."

…

"Ah, home sweet home." Natsu dropped himself onto his couch.

Erza locked the door behind them and joined Natsu in his living room. "What a hectic morning it's been…" Erza sat on the single couch, letting out a stressful breath.

"You're telling me…" Natsu felt comfortable on the couch.

"I'm still rather surprised at the amount of people you had over there," Erza still had the crowd in her mind. "It's very astounding."

"I've had bigger in other cities in Fiore." Natsu bragged a bit.

"We should be more cautious next time," she warned. "Should've seen this coming."

"Hey, don't beat yourself over it," Natsu turned to his side to look at the scarlet haired woman. "Everyone isn't a Psychic or at the very least predict the future."

If only Erza had some ability like that to her advantage, would help out a lot in her contracts. Still though, so far in her career, she's relied on her skills. "I guess you're right about that." She said.

"You have any idea why the shooter left the gun behind?" Natsu's earlier question still lingered in his mind.

"Nope." As much as she hate to admit it, Erza doesn't know what Mirajane has in store for them.

**I swear this woman… what's she playing at?** Erza continued to think. It wasn't long before her deep thinking was cut short by someone knocking on the door.

"I'll get it." Natsu forced himself from his couch and quickly went to the door.

"No, let me get it," Erza wasn't taking any chances and went for the door first. "Who is it?" She asked.

"It's Gray Fullbuster, a friend of Natsu's."

…

"Hey Levy." Laxus walked in her Forensic Lab.

"Don't pressure me!" By the sound of her voice, it seemed like someone may have come in here already and annoyed her.

"Whoa, take it easy there tiger." Laxus meant no harm to her. He stood right next to her.

"S-Sorry, you're the third person who has come down here and nagged me about these fingerprints!" She continued to dust the sniper and it's bullets, hoping to find at least a partial or two.

"Third? Who was the first and second?" He asked.

"That'd be us." A third voice joined in.

Laxus turned his back and saw Chief Jura and an unknown redhead male. "Oh, chief! And you are?"

"FBI Agent Gildarts, pleased to meet you Detective Laxus." The red haired agent reached in for a handshake.

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Agent Gildarts," Laxus firmly grasped his hand and shook well. "But why is an FBI agent doing here?"

"Your boss and my boss talked and they decided a joint op between the FBI and MPD was a more better suited decision than taking the whole work." Gildarts explained his presence.

"So does that mean I don't have to do all that paperwork?" Laxus asked.

"I guess," Jura now took over the conversation. "Now we're just here to see Ms. McGarden's progress on finding a fingerprint."

"Don't rush me guys!" Levy said, slightly irritated that she had to rush her findings.

"Don't you have another Forensic scientist?" Gildarts asked.

"There's 2 more but they're on their breaks." Levy answered his question.

"Oh."

"Aha! I found a partial!" Levy found the partial on the barrel of the gun.

"Good work, Ms. McGarden." The chief complimented.

"Nice." Laxus complimented as well.

"Good." Gildarts was so and so with a compliment.

"Okay now, I'm running it on the National Database." Levy said. She brought up her computer screen on the big screen where all of them could see the results.

"If the assassin has been this careful, I doubt there'll be any hits." Laxus said, waiting for the results.

"I agree." Gildarts said, not moving his eyes away from the monitor.

"Geez, have some faith guys." Levy tried to be optimistic about this from the bunch.

About a minute passed and still, no zilch.

"This is useless, we'll never find a-" Laxus was then interrupted by the computer's results.

"We got a hit!" Levy loudly said.

"Holy crap!" The agent, the chief and the detective stared in awe at the screen. So much for the assassin being too careful.

"And our lucky winner is…" Levy pressed a few keystrokes and revealed their number 1 suspect. "A 27 year old Marine, Daniel Bonard."

"A Marine?" Jura asked.

"Yep, according to his records, he received a dishonorable discharge for fighting with another Marine." Levy read.

"What about an address?"

…

"Gray Fullbuster?" Erza repeated his name once more.

"It's Gray? Open the door for him, he's a friend." Natsu told her.

Erza unlocked the top and bottom locked and slowly opened the door where a dark haired man in a fancy tux that matched his hair in color stood. "Hey there ash-for-brains!" He immediately greeted Natsu.

"What's up, Ice Princess?" Natsu greeted back.

" _Ash-for-brains_? _Ice Princess_?" Erza locked the door once he came inside. "What kind of nicknames are those?"

"His name is Ice Princess because he owns one of the most successful Ice Cream shops in Magnolia." Natsu explained Gray's rather absurd nickname.

"And his name is Ash-for-brains because back in high school, he was a real Pyromaniac of the sort." Gray explained Natsu's absurd nickname as well.

"Oookay I guess." Erza didn't questioned it any further.

"And who might you be?" Gray asked her.

"My name is Erza Scarlet, the bodyguard of Natsu Dragneel." Erza introduced herself to him.

"Bodyguard? Wow, didn't think bodyguards were this pretty." Gray scratched his upper lip.

"Hey, you have a fiancé now." Natsu reminded him.

"Oh, right," Gray said. "Pleased to meet you, Ms. Scarlet."

"Likewise, Mr. Fullbuster." Erza simply nodded.

"So Gray, how you been?" Natsu sat back on the long couch, inviting Gray to take the seat right next to him.

"I should be the one asking you that." Gray too the seat next to him.

"Why is that?" Natsu asked, confused at what he meant by that.

"You've been shot at! And twice in two days!" Gray told him. While it was true that his friend's life was in danger, it didn't seem to bother Natsu.

"I'm still here though thanks to Erza." He looked over at Erza who was sitting back on the single couch.

"Just doing my job I guess." She said. **Even though it's the opposite of my actual job…**

"Did anyone get hurt?" Gray asked.

"Just a few splinters here and there, nothing a nail clipper couldn't remove," Natsu said. He, his secretary and Erza were hit with splinters from the mahogany podium, but nothing that indicated a serious injury of any sort. "Like I said, Erza again, saved my life."

"Well I thank you for that," Gray gave her a nod of appreciation. "Listen, are you still going to be able to make it to the wedding?"

"Oh shoot, it's today right?" Natsu was concerned about his speech today in the morning, he had forgotten about his friend's wedding.

"Yeah, me and Juvia don't want you to miss it." Gray said.

"Hold up, where exactly is your wedding taking place?" Erza asked.

"On our cruise liner," Gray immediately answered her. "It's not the person after him knows where he's going, right?"

"It's his wedding, and I'm his best man," Natsu turned to look at Erza. Like a child asking his parent's permission to go somewhere, Natsu asked her. "It couldn't as dangerous as this morning on a boat, can't it?"

While Erza thought about the pros and cons, she couldn't help but think of Mirajane actually knowing where they're going. She knew her and she knew damn well that when Mirajane sets her eyes on a target, she wouldn't stop until they were eliminated.

Still, she couldn't help but also think about the itself wedding. There was something about them she enjoyed. Maybe the fact that the newly weds found themselves in paradise or maybe the fact that love was in the air. Or maybe it was just because of the cake. Still, she would feel rather comfortable in the presence of them.

She sighed and gave her white flag of defeat. "Fine."

"Awesome!" Natsu happily said.

"The S.S. Gruvia is in the north docks, I'll be waiting for you guys there later, okay?" Gray got himself up from his seated position and walked towards the door, leaving now.

"Yeah, we'll be there in a bit." Natsu answered for himself and Erza, expecting their arrival at the docks later.

"Great," Gray opened the door. "I'll see you then."

Gray closed the door and Erza locked it right away. "Wedding, huh?"

"It slipped my mind." Natsu scratched behind his head.

"When we go there, I want to see you in my line of sight, don't want anything to happen to you while we're there." Erza asked of him. For an assassin, this was pretty ironic for her to say the least.

"Deal," Natsu agreed. "Are you going to wear that?"

"I'm your bodyguard, of course I'm supposed to wear this," she had a peculiar look on her face, absurd at the question he asked.

"I mean, it is a wedding, wouldn't you prefer to have something nice over there?" Natsu said.

He had a point, but because of the last two situations they've been, she didn't want to take any chances. "This is fine."

"Come on now, don't be like that," Natsu continued to persuade her. "You could wear that one cute dress you were wearing when you applied." Natsu slightly blushed as he remembered that alluring dress.

"…" Erza thought once more before finally giving her answer again. She threw another white flag of surrender. "Fine! This is the only time however!"

"Then it settled."

…

"Going to a little party now, my Scarlet bird?" Mirajane continued to listen to her radio where she can hear the chit chatter of the trio. "Guess I'm going to have to crash that wedding…" She smirked as she turned off the radio, no longer hearing their conversation…


	6. Chapter 6

"MPD! HANDS IN THE AIR NOW!" Everything happened so quickly. A SWAT team, including FBI Agent Gildarts and Detective Laxus, burst opened the door of the home of the suspect.

The fingerprint belonged to a Daniel Bonard who was suspected of dealing with illegal weapons and such. They never had something concrete to pin him to it but now because of the sole fingerprint found on a Barret sniper rifle, they now had cause of some sort.

"I SAID PUT YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR NOW!" Laxus, in a heavy armored suit, said as he pointed his gun towards the dark haired man in front of him.

"Oh shit…" The man did as he was told.

Laxus gave the signal and two of his men went towards the man and handcuffed him. "Daniel Bonard, I'm placing you under arrest for dealing with illegal weapons and having a connection to hit against a presidential candidate!"

"I didn't do anything!" Daniel said, typical for a man who's getting arrested.

"Alright men, let's take this bastard back to the Station," he told them. "Find him a nice cell."

"You got it boss." Both of the men dragged Daniel through the front door, taking him to a transport vehicle.

As the rest of the men headed back towards the car, Laxus went in search of Gildarts who had seemingly started to look around the house for any evidence to link Daniel to the hit. "Find anything!?" Laxus yelled downstairs towards the basement as he went down.

He saw Gildarts near a large opened crate by the brick wall under the basement window. "Found your evidence of illegal weapons." The red haired man said as he took out a military grade M16.

"Anything that ties him to what had happened at the stadium?" Laxus asked he too looked around.

"Not that I know of." Gildarts said, placing the gun back in the crate.

"The forensic team is going to have a field day with this house," Laxus saw a bunch more crates around the basement. "You think he kept a manuscript of some sort to write down his transactions?"

"Probably, but looking at how messy this place is, I doubt he was the sorting type." Gildarts answered, taking off his helmet and wiping a few drops of sweat from his forehead.

Laxus walked up to a table that had piles of paper, similar to that of his office desk. On the wall, there was a few newspaper strip cut out and pinned on it. Gildarts joined him. "Well, there's your evidence now." Gildarts said as both men stared at the pictures of Natsu.

"You think he's your guy?" Gildarts asked.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions right now, but it's solid to me at this point." Laxus attention was now diverted at a beat up small notebook. He grabbed the book and opened it.

"What's that?" Gildarts looked at Laxus.

A smirk came across Laxus' face. "Found the manuscript."

"Awesome." Gildarts gave him a small pat to the back.

"DETECTIVE!" One of the regular grunt policeman rushed down the stairs.

Both men turned to face the officer. "What is it cadet?" Laxus asked as the officer as he took a deep breath before telling them.

"It's… Mr. Dragneel and his… lady bodyguard…" He continued to breath heavy in between his sentence.

"What about them?" The two raised an eyebrow at the officer.

"THEY'RE NOT AT HOME!" The officer exclaimed.

"What do you mean they're not home!?" Laxus asked. As much as this was expected, he didn't think that the pink headed candidate would disobey his order.

"He left a note." The officer quickly took out the piece of paper that was left.

Laxus quickly took the note from the young officers hand. " _If you're reading this, then that means you probably already know I and Erza left. Don't worry, I went to a friend's wedding that is taking place on his big boat. Sorry about disobeying the order, I just had to go considering I'm the best man. Anyways, nothing is going to happen, we'll be back before you even know it! P.S., there is left over Chinese food in the fridge if you're hungry._ "

"Well that was… unexpected." Gildarts scratched his head.

"Goddammit!" Laxus crumbled up the paper and threw at the wall, infuriated at the presidential candidate.

"Hey man, if we caught the hit man, then there's no worries, right?" Gildarts assured the blonde.

"I really hope you're right about that…"

…

Natsu and Erza arrived at the Northern docks. From the limousine's windows, they saw the cruise liner. It was huge, just like your typical cruise liner would look. The top half of the ship was blue while the bottom half was black.

The driver dropped them off at the entrance of the cruise liner. "Here you are, sir," an old man said as he stopped the limousine. "Call me when you get back."

"Will do." Natsu said as he and Era stepped out of the car.

Natsu wore a semi white and black tux. His jacket was white while the bottom half was black. Erza wore a dress similar to that of her first dress she wore, however, this one was dark with a few bits and pieces of red. He wore dress shoes whilst she wore her black heels.

"This is a beautiful ship." Erza admired the ship's vibrant white glow in the night.

"It really is," Natsu agreed. His attention was quickly diverted at the bordering part of the train where a familiar bluenette stood in front of it with some sort of docking officer. "Come on now Erza, the girl over there is waiting for us."

"Who?" Erza asked.

"Natsu-sama!" Suddenly, the bluenette standing around the bordering part of the cruise liner immediately greeted the two as they walked towards the ship.

"Juvia," Natsu happily greeted back. "How's it been?"

"Juvia feels great now that Natsu-sama is here," As always, the bluenette would constantly talk as if she was in third person. "And who is this lovely person you have with you?"

"I'm Erza Scarlet, his bodyguard." Erza answered.

"Oh, you're the one that has saved Natsu-sama's life more than once already?" Juvia was pretty happy to see the Guardian angel that has been protecting the presidential candidate. "Juvia and Gray-sama appreciate you having our friend's back."

"My pleasure." Erza meekly smiled.

"Speaking of Gray, where's your fiancé at?" Natsu immediately asked about Gray's whereabouts.

"Gray-sama is addressing the other people we've invited to our wedding," Juvia explained. "The ship is about to head out, so Juvia urges us to come inside the ship."

"How come you're not dressed yet in your gown?" Natsu asked as the three of them made their way inside.

"Juvia doesn't get dressed until 7," Juvia said. They made their way into the living area of the cruise liner. "He's your room."

She opened the door with her master key. The room was beautiful. Unlike the outside of the ship, the color of the room was a pleasant cream colored type. From the drapes to the carpet, from the furniture to the bed and sheets, everything matched.

"Neat." Natsu commented.

"Pretty." Erza commented as well.

The two entered while Juvia stood in the doorway. "The ship is about to leave the docks and we won't come back until tomorrow afternoon," Juvia told them. "Gray-sama will come later to take you the ballroom where the wedding is taking place. Please, make your self feel comfortable at the meantime."

"Yeah, no problem." Natsu said.

"Juvia has to go and get ready now, bye now." Juvia closed the door behind her and left the two in the room for themselves.

"Tomorrow afternoon, huh? So much for coming back before the Detective knew we ditched his security team." Erza sat on the bed, somewhat exhausted already.

"Don't worry, I left a note just in case they found out we ditched." Natsu had already prepared in case Detective Laxus went ape-shit in their disappearance.

"I guess that's better than nothing."

The cruise liner's loud whistle finally blew, signaling the ship's departure from land.

…

Detective Laxus and FBI Agent Gildarts entered the interrogation room in which Daniel Bonard was placed in.

His hands were handcuffed and bound to the table while his legs were handcuffed together as well, just a precaution in case the suspect goes a bit wild during the interrogation process.

Both the detective and the agent sat across from. Laxus had a folder which contained all the offenses Daniel has committed while Gildarts gave him the stink eye. "I'm telling you, whatever you're accusing me of, I'm innocent!"

"Oh Daniel, how many times are we going down this path with you?" Laxus began.

"Tch! Detective Laxus, you've been after my skin for a long time!" It was true, Laxus and Daniel had history. The detective would try to arrest him for any small misdemeanor but the man would get away because of 'insufficient evidence.'

"We've been at this for too long, but now I have enough evidence to put you in jail for a lifetime," Laxus threw the folder at Daniel which contained the pictures of his crates and guns. "And we've even tied you to a hit case that happened this morning that the FBI is involved in."

"The FBI?" Daniel gulped down his saliva, he was getting nervous. "Is that who he is?"

"Mm hmm." Gildarts sat with his arms across his chest.

"Look," it seemed Daniel cracked once Laxus mentioned the FBI. "I'll admit that I sold those guns illegally, but I swear on my mother's life, I did not try to kill the pink haired presidential candidate!"

"Oh, so you do know what and who we're talking about right?" Gildarts sat straight in his chair, the interrogation was getting interesting by the minute.

"Yeah, the shooting that happened this morning, right?" Daniel nodded, hoping that was what he was brought in here for specifically. "And you found the Barret with my fingerprint in the barrel, correct?"

"I'm intrigued Daniel, I'd never expected you to know exactly where we found the fingerprint that puts you at the scene of the crime." Laxus told him.

"That's because I'm innocent! This morning I was… I was…" Daniel now kept his mouth shut.

"You were where now Daniel?" Gildarts now asked a question.

Daniel continued to look into his hands, almost scared.

"Come on Daniel, if you cooperate with us, maybe we can cut you a deal." Laxus told him.

"… I was selling meth with a few of my buddies…" He said lowly.

"Wow, we're adding _selling illegal narcotics_ to the list now, Daniel?" Laxus raised an eyebrow.

"Just trust me on that, okay!?" He told the duo.

"That's not enough Daniel to make a deal." Gildarts told him.

"…" Daniel scratched his head with both of his hands. He was hiding more than he was saying and the two knew that.

"Come on Daniel," Laxus tried persuading him. "Give us more, or else, you're looking at the Death Penalty here with what we got on you."

"Okay!" Daniel gulped down more saliva. "There was this woman." He began. "She gave me $5000 dollars if she an rent the basement of my house. And extra 10 grand for the Barret. She's your main suspect!"

"A woman?" Both men asked.

"Yeah." He answered.

"Did this woman by any chance, have a name?" Laxus asked.

"Yeah, she did," Daniel said. "I don't if it's real or not considering most people I work with use some type of aliases."

"Just give us the name, boy." Gildarts started to grow impatient.

"She said she went by the name, Erza Scarlet." He told them.

"Wait a minute, isn't that the name of the red haired woman who's protecting Natsu!?" Gildarts immediately looked at Laxus.

"Yeah that's her name alright." Laxus had some suspicions of her but she had an airtight alibi, and that was saving Natsu at the stadium. She couldn't be in two places at once.

"Red hair? No, this woman had white hair." Daniel clarified their suspicions.

"White?" Both Men said at the exact same time.

"Yeah, in fact, I took a picture of her on my phone," Daniel revealed. "Like I said, this woman was very beautiful."

Gildarts nodded at the two way mirror, giving the signal to a few grunts to go back and look at his belongings.

"Daniel, you might have just saved yourself the Death penalty here." Laxus told him.

…

Just a few miles off the coast of Magnolia City, the cruise liner had stopped and it now just floated near the gaze of the city.

Natsu, Erza and the rest of people who were invited to the wedding were now awaiting for the big moment to happen. Everyone was standing, minus a few children and toddlers who were sitting down awaiting for the bride to show.

Gray awaited near the altar along with Natsu, who is his best man. Erza took a seat in the front where she had her eyes set on Natsu.

Suddenly, the main ballroom door's were opened loudly and a beautiful Juvia in her white wedding gown slowly walked down the aisle.

Everyone continued to stare. A few started to cry and others started to take pictures of this.

Juvia finally made it to the end of other side where Gray, Natsu and an elderly priest known as Ichiya stood there.

Juvia and Gray stood in front of each other with everlasting smiles.

"Dearly beloved," Ichiya started. "We are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this company, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church: which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee, and is commended of Saint Paul to be honourable among all men: and therefore is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God." He paused for a second. "Into this holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace."

No one stood up.

Ichiya now looked at Gray and Juvia. "I require and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it." He asked of them. "For be ye well assured, that if any persons are joined together other than as God's Word doth allow, their marriage is not lawful."

Neither had cold feet. They've waited for long time for this to happen.

"Gray," He turned to look at the young man. "Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?"

"I will."

"Juvia," He now turned to look at the bluenette. "Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love him, comfort him, honour, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?"

"I will."

"Who giveth this Woman to be married to this Man?" He continued on with the tradition.

Both of them extended their arms and held each other.

"I, Gray, take thee Juvia to my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."

"And I, Juvia, take thee Gray to my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy."

Both Gray and Juvia let go of each other. Natsu then gave the ring to Ichiya who then gave it to Gray. "WITH this Ring I thee wed: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

Gray carefully got Juvia's left hand and put the wedding ring on her fourth finger. Juvia blushed at his action and many applause the action itself, congratulating the two. "BLESS, O Lord, this Ring, that he who gives it and she who wears it may abide in thy peace, and continue in they favour, unto their life's end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Ichiya said as Gray was done putting the ring on her.

"Now let us pray…"


	7. Chapter 7

"You may now kiss the bride." The priest known as Ichiya told them.

Gray and Juvia looked at each other with joyful smiles, instantly and finally awaiting those specific words. They embraced and locked lips with each other. May not be the closest thing to paradise, but with their everlasting love for each other, the moment will forever be remembered.

Everybody got up from their chairs and cheered, clapping and yelling out chants at the newly weds. Even Erza joined in, she was indeed a sucker for these kinds of things.

After several minutes, the ballroom went from looking like the inside of the church to that of a regular cruise ship party. Besides the chairs, new things were now accessible such as the bar area of the room and tables were now set around the ballroom, leaving only the center for dancing and such.

The altar was quickly changed to that of a stage where a few bands that Gray had invited for the party.

"This is pretty sweet ain't it?" Natsu took a seat by Erza who was at the bar.

"This isn't the first party I've attended," Erza took a drink from her shot glass that the bar keep gave her. "But you're right this is pretty nice."

Natsu looked at her as she drank down another shot of an unknown substance. "For the same person who said that she wanted to keep an eye on me, she sure is drinking a bunch of…. What exactly are you drinking?"

"Iced Tea," Erza knew Natsu would say something among those lines to her. "You think I'd actually get drunk while on the job?"

"I mean, you can enjoy yourself here and there, just don't over do it, ya know?" He told her.

"You're right, but not right now," she took down another glass of iced tea. "Not when your life is at stake."

"That's true, though I doubt that we're in any kind of danger." Natsu took a deep breath. He was finally feeling relaxed. Getting shot at twice can get you a bit more tense than usual.

"Maybe you should take your own advice." Erza looked at him. While it's true that her being his bodyguard was just a gimmick for her real job, she couldn't help but cut him some slack.

"Maybe I should, but with everything going on at the moment with the election and the whole getting shot at, I shouldn't, for any minute of my life, let my guard down." His energy was now elevated.

She didn't realize how overworked he was feeling yet still had a lot of energy to give out, it surprised her to the very least. **I should keep that in mind,** she echoed those words through her brain. **If he says he's not letting his guard down, then I shouldn't either.**

"Hey bar keep, give me a glass of water please." Natsu asked of him.

With a simple nod, the bar keep took his order. He took out a cold water bottle from the small fridge and served it in his cup, now sliding it over to him.

"Thanks." Natsu took a few gulps down. Already half his drink was gone.

Erza looked around the ballroom. People were everywhere around and a fee children were running around as well. She didn't see the newly weds around. "Where did your friends go?" She asked Natsu as she turned back to the her drink.

"Oh, they're getting ready to get the cake out and uhm, something about telling the bands they've hired on the cruise to sing their favorite songs." He told her as he finished the rest of his cold drink.

"I assume their going to do their wedding dance, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah."

After a few more minutes of just drinking regular beverages, the main ballroom doors slammed opened as the wedding brought their enormous white and different blue colored frosted cake into the ballroom.

"Come get your slice of cake now, guys!" Gray announced.

"Do you know what kind of cake it is?" Erza asked of Natsu.

"I believe it's a combination of strawberry and blueberry cheese cakes," He told her. He got up from his chair, making way to the direction of where the cake was. "Would you like me to get you a slice?" He asked her before leaving her with the bar keep.

"A slice of Strawberry Cheesecake, if you can." Erza loved cheesecake. It was practically what she craved here at these kinds of parties.

"Alright."

As he approached the wedding cake, his attention, along with the other guests, were directed where the altar once was. It was now a small stage with a mic, and behind that mic was the bluenette, Juvia. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Juvia and Gray will now be preparing for our wedding chance."

The guests all clapped.

"Our band of our choice for our wedding song is none other than Red." The spotlight went from her, to the band with a few other people with orchestra type of instruments.

Once more, the guests all clapped. A few whistled and cheered as well.

"So please enjoy their music in the meantime as Juvia Gray prepare." She soon walked off the stage and back out of the ballroom she went out.

Natsu got his and Erza's slice of cakes and walked right back to his seat. "Here you go." He placed her slice in front of her whilst he did the same action to himself.

"Thank you." She simply gave him a smile for his generosity.

"No problem, least I could do for saving me twice." He said, already digging in on his slice of cake.

Unlike Natsu, Erza slowly ate and enjoyed the flavors of the Strawberry cheesecake. The combinations of flavors made her feel much more livid then before. She savored the taste as she chewed on the small pieces she would put in her mouth.

Suddenly, the atmosphere of the room changed. The lights went dark, but not too dark. It was still sew hat visible. The center of the room was lit up with a spotlight and the two newly weds stood right in it.

A slow song called the Forest was by Red, a mixture of both piano and a violin.

Gray and Juvia held each other. He had both of his hands on her waist while she dwindled hers around his neck, and the two started to slow dance.

It was mesmerizing to watch. The two followed the beat of both the piano and the violin which complimented each other.

None could stare away as they danced around the spotlight like two professional ice skaters on an ice rink. Left, right, a small but elegant twirl, the two showed off their beautiful well done moves to the audience.

Not even a minute in yet both the song and the dance ended. The two came close to each other's faces and smiled as they had finished their wedding dance. It was short but enjoyable for all to watch.

Everybody clapped and cheered. "Thank you!" The two said as the spotlight changed from a singular to multiple, spinning around the room. The two went to the nearest table, exhausted at their performance.

"That was amazing."

"Truly beautiful."

"Man, I wish I knew how to dance like that."

From left to right, everybody complimented their performance.

"That was great, wasn't it Erza?" Natsu slowly stopped his clap.

"Indeed, though I'm rather disappointed it wasn't longer," she finally finished her cake as she watched the performance. "Was a great thing."

"Everybody's starting to dance now." Natsu pointed at several couples who started to slow dance to just the tune of a beautiful piano tune.

The tune of the piano suddenly got louder and louder for Erza. She didn't understand what was happening but soon realized it was yet again another memory she didn't seem to remember.

Like with Gray and Juvia, two figures stood in the middle of a spotlight, dancing. These two figures weren't distinct at all and she couldn't put a face on either two.

" _Do you want to join us little Erza?"_ A feminine voice that sounded like her mother from an earlier memory said towards her.

Erza found herself in her child self again and the two figures stretched out their arms towards her, telling her to join.

"You okay Erza?" Natsu's voice soon reached her mind, breaking her from her memory trance.

She placed her hands over her eyes, rubbing them like if she seen a ghost of some kind.

"Erza?" Natsu placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I-I'm fine." She stuttered. She found herself again in the ballroom. Back to reality.

"Are you sure? You've acted like this earlier today back at the stadium and yesterday at the political party." Natsu recollected the two other times she's acted like she's had some type of migraine.

"I'm fine." She let out a deep breath, no longer rubbing her eyes and holding two fingers on the side of her head.

"Just making sure." He told her.

"Thanks for caring at least." She know knew he paid attention to her every move. Guess she's going to have to watch her own actions.

"Alright guys, the next song that we're going to play is called Of These Chains," the band leader of Red said through his microphone. "Enjoy."

The song started with a slow melody of a combination of both the piano and the violin.

"Erza, do you want to dance?" Natsu blatantly asked her.

Her face instantly turned red. "W-What?"

"Do you want to dance with me?" He told her once more.

His question immediately let her guard down. **Is this man serious?** She looked at him once, still surprised at his sudden question. "I, uh, don't really know how to dance…" She had hope that was a good enough excuse.

Suddenly, he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out to the dance floor. "Just follow my lead."

They made it to the center of the dance floor and both Erza and Natsu stood in front of each other. "What are you doing?" She was flustered by his sudden actions.

"Come on," Natsu grabbed her right hand with his left and placed his right hand on her waist. "Don't be shy, like I said, follow my lead."

Her face got more redder each second he held her in a slow dance position, thank god it was dark enough for him not to see. "T-There's going to b-be a misunderstanding!" She stuttered.

"And?" It didn't bother Natsu to the slightest.

The song finally commenced.

" _So here we are, at the end, now…"_

As the song commenced, Natsu started to slowly dance. Left foot, right foot, Erza had to follow his lead now so she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of the audience.

" _I need to leave but I only want to stay with you,"_

Only a few seconds in and she already made a mistake and that was accidentally stepping on Natsu's right foot. "S-Sorry!"

"It's fine, just continue the way you were dancing before you stepped on me." He told her. His smile made her blush a tad bit on her cheeks.

" _I never asked to be the one to set me free,"_

Their bodies were now much closer to each other, almost like an embrace. Still, they had enough space in between each other to continue on the dance.

Erza still tried to follow his lead as best as she could. For an assassin, you would think she would have a lot more skills than just fighting and killing.

" _Another mask you wore that only I could see."_

The other couples and pairings left the dance floor and soon the spotlight was on them.

Though the two realized this, Erza was the one that was worried the most. A misunderstanding between the two would only halt her future plans with her contract.

" _Let me take you when I go, when I go... I don't want to do this on my own, on my own,"_

"You're doing better." Natsu told her as he, brushed against her, continued to move elegantly with his steps on the dance floor.

"I didn't realize you were quite a dancer." Admittedly, she was now enjoying this. Two steps to the right, two steps back, and continued on.

" _I'm breaking free, but of these chains, oh, let this one remain, let me take you when I goooo…"_

Suddenly, Natsu spun Erza around, slowly with his right hand and her left hand. And came back, connecting their rhythmic moves with the perfect sound of the violin and piano part of the song.

Though it was just your basic Waltz, the audience awed them.

" _I can still feel you here now in this cage. Every link, another piece of you I saved,"_

Erza's heartbeat now matched Natsu's, beating in unison.

She gulped down a bit of saliva. This was the first time she's ever dance and make her worries a bit worse, in front of a crowd.

Though she didn't mind it, she felt as is she was giving them mixed signals in where she and Natsu stood. She was just his bodyguard and nothing more.

" _Afraid to open up the door to, who I was before, and if I let go of these chains now, will I float away? Can I just hold ooooon?"_

Their feet continued on to the beat and Erza no longer would accidentally step on Natsu's foot.

The change of tune made it seem like they've reached the climax part of the song, nearing it's end.

" _Oh, let me take you when I go, when I go. I don't want to do this on my own, on my own."_

She saw his smile as they did another box with their feet, almost coming to an end.

Her heart beat faster than before. She remembered this feeling, a feeling of warmth that wrapped around her very heart, like an almost died out flame in her body was reignited.

She felt this way with Mirajane before but those days have long since past. That feeling was happy but at the same time, it filled a hole somewhere in her heart. And that was the feeling of love.

**Crap.** She thought to herself.

" _I'm breaking free, but of these chains, oh, let this one remain. Let me take you when I goooooo…"_

The lyrics finally ended but the sound of both the violin and the piano still lingered, changing it's rhythm to be more elegant in vibes.

As the song neared the end, Natsu spun Era once more and when he brought her back to his arms, their bodies touched.

Faces only mere inches away from each other, and the two could perfectly see each other's blush.

Erza felt nervous. **Please don't.** She's seen enough movies with these clichés and it always ended with some kind of kiss at the end. She had hoped that wasn't his intention.

But her worries were soon washed down when Natsu dipped her, ending their mesmerizing dance that way with the song.

The crowd cheered them, even louder than they cheered the newly weds, which was surprising to both of them.

Natsu brought her back up and released his grip on her as she did with him. "I didn't mean to put us in an awkward situation like that." Natsu scratched his head.

"I-I need some fresh air." Erza quickly left the dance floor and dashed through the ballroom's main doors.

Several minutes passed and Erza now found herself outside the ship's interior and staring into the sea. **Get yourself together Erza!** She tried making sense of what had happened back at the dancefloor.

Erza slowly breathed in and out. **He caught me off guard again!** She thought to herself, frustrated with her mixed feelings.

**I need to be more cautious,** She mentally told herself. **Stuff like this leave to such misunderstandings, and I really don't need that, especially with this target.**

She tried to calm herself. **First with these weird flashbacks and now with my emotions… the sooner I get this done, the sooner my life gets back to normal…** One last slow intake of air before going back in.

"ERZA!" Her attention was diverted to her right where she saw the pinkette run towards her.

He stopped right in front of her, on his knees and panting. "Phew, I found you."

"I was just about to head inside." She told him.

He stood right back up, facing her. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." She told him.

"But I do," he was more lax now. His breathing was back to normal. "I put you and I in an awkward position and I'm deeply sorry."

"It's fine, really," she reassured him. "I just don't want a misunderstanding between the two of us."

"Oh thank goodness," those words must've released some tension in his bones. "I feel the same way."

"I'm just a bodyguard, and that's it." Erza said.

"Misunderstanding my ass, you totally enjoyed yourself back there, Erz." Suddenly, third person joined in into their conversation.

**That voice…** Erza slowly turned herself to face the person.

"Isn't that your friend from back at the party?" Natsu looked back as well, facing the third party in the conversation. "Mirajane, right?"

"Oh, you still remember my name, I'm flattered." Mirajane said. Her appearance was different from the last time Natsu saw her. Instead of a dress, she wore some type of light armor, similar to that of Erza when on duty.

Her presence sent goosebumps down Erza's spine. **How!? How did she find us!?** She gulped down more saliva, nervous of what's to come.

"What's wrong Erza? Are you at a loss of words?" Mirajane mocked with a small devilish laugh at the end of it.

"Tch!" Erza's tone quickly changed. "How did you find us?"

"I bugged your purse," the blonde told her. "Quite simple, ever since you started this… whatever you are, you've been slacking Erza."

"Why would she bug your purse Erza?" Natsu asked the scarlet haired woman. "She wouldn't do that unless…" He stopped midsentence, finally putting the pieces together.

"Ding, ding!" Mirajane acted like a buzzard at a trivial game. "I'm the one trying to kill you."

"Natsu stand right behind me." She ordered him. She knew this would become a bloodbath if she let Natsu run back to the party. She had to keep the casualties to a minimum at best.

"That's probably the best thing to do." Mirajane then pointed her handgun at them. The handgun had a silencer on it, probably so it wouldn't alert anyone of the current conflict at hand.

The distance between Erza and Mirajane was pretty wide. **We're in a bad spot…** Erza mentally noted her surroundings. **If I try to sprint at her, she could very much shoot me at point blank range. Anywhere we tried to run at, she would easily be able to shot us… dammit, this woman is much more unpredictable than ever….**

"Hey, follow my lead, okay?" Natsu whispered at her.

"What?" Erza didn't know what the pinkette had in mind. Other than knowing all the directions around here, there was no way they'd escape Mirajane's grasp from shooting at them.

"Just trust me on that."

"What are you guys blabbering about?" Mirajane couldn't hear them. No matter, she knew there time was coming to an end. "Never mind, I think we've stalled this moment long enough."

"Now!" Natsu grabbed her by the hand, and the two jumped over the railing. "Jump!"

"Are you i-" No time to say a structured sentence and Erza found herself jumping as well.

"Shit!" Mirajane didn't plan on them on jumping and in a split second, they were out of her sight. She ran over to where they were by the railing and to find them at the floor below.

"Come on." Natsu helped Erza up.

"That was insane, you're lucky we got to this floor instead of falling into the water!" Erza exclaimed at him.

"We should get going instead squabbling around here!" He didn't even try to retort back at her statement. Any minute now, Mirajane would try to do the same action as they did to minimize the distance.

"Alright, alright!" The two quickly started to run from their current position.

Mirajane repeated their action and jumped down to the floor below. Nowhere insight now. "A game of cat and mouse now?" She looked around the corridors of the ship, hoping to find some clue in which direction they went. "Oh, Erza, this is a game I will win…"

And without a second thought, she ran to her right, following a sign where the upper deck part of the ship was pointed at.

The two were far from where they once were. They stopped, resting by the wall they stood by.

"So your, uh, ex, is the assassin?" Natsu panted in between his sentence.

"I don't think now is the right time…" Erza tried to regulate her breathing before they continued.

"Y-Yeah, I'm sorry." He let out a ball of air.

"We should split up, maybe one of us can get her from behind." She suggested.

"You think that's a good idea?" He looked at her. Though not the idea he expected from her.

"She's obviously after you," she explained. "You'd be the bait and I'll come from behind her."

"I think after what had happened back there, I don't think I'm the only target now." He told her. His words were true however, Erza saw in Mirajane's eyes that this was very much a vendetta against her as well.

"Then you keep on going," she started to walk back. "I'll stop her here."

"That's insane!" Natsu tried to back her out of her current plan. "She's in body armor while you're in a dress! She's much more prepared than we are!"

"I'm always prepared." Erza took out her hidden Sais that were strapped to her upper thigh.

"She has a gun." He wasn't much relieved at the sight of her pointy looking knifes.

"She's in body armor, she's going to be slower than I am in this dress," she ripped the bottom part of her dress with her Sai. "I'll be just fine."

"I really hope you're right about that."

"Just go now." She told him.

Just as he was about to leave, he stopped in his tracks. "G-Good luck!" He told her before leaving her be.

**I could very much let him die here…** Erza thought to herself. **Could save me a lot of trouble of doing it myself…** She gripped her Sai, almost angry to herself. **What is wrong with me? Why is my body compelled to protecting him now!? I've never had to protect a target much less take on another assassin! Why must this person be so different than the rest of the stubborn loathes I deal with!?**

Her thoughts continued to spiral around until she stopped herself. She deeply sighed. "Guess there's no going back on this…"

"No going back on what?" Mirajane finally appeared.

"In fighting you." Erza turned to look at the blonde, face to face again.

"Seriously, what is with you with protecting that pink haired fellow?" Mirajane had her gun in hand but didn't point the gun at her.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to plan things out before doing the actual deed." She answered her question.

"I saw the way you looked at him back at the dance floor," Mirajane told her what she saw, the insight Erza didn't really want to hear from her. "That look was the same one you gave me when we first started dating." Mirajane continued. "The same look you used when you told me you loved me."

"There's nothing between me and him!" She retorted. "Like there isn't anything between us anymore!"

"I'm just giving a piece of advice," Mirajane readied her gun. "The way it's going between the two of you, it's going to end, badly."

"Tch." Without one more word, Erza dashed towards her and finally the battle between the two finally commenced.


	8. Chapter 8

Erza sprinted towards Mirajane, like a lion in the savanna chasing it's prey. Mirajane quickly reacted, raised her silences gun at her and fired at her.

From a straight line to a zigzag, Erza casually dodged her bullets. "Is that all?" She wasn't all impressed at her shooting.

"Not quite!" Suddenly, Mirajane threw her silenced at Erza.

She dodged it but a blitz from Mirajane caught her off guard, making the blonde jab a hard punch to her gut, instantly dropping her Sais to the floor. "Gah!'

"Shouldn't keep you eyes of-" Mirajane's question was cut short when Erza head-butted her.

"You were saying?" Erza grinned.

Neither of the two assassin's had their weapons. Erza's Sais laid on the floor while Mirajane's silenced handgun was meters away from their fight. "Guess we're going to have to do this the old fashion way?" Mirajane smirked.

"I guess we do." Erza readied her stance. She followed the traditional basic karate stance with her feet spread a bit a part and her fists ready near her chest.

Mirajane as well, however, she had a more of a Boxing stance. Similar to Erza's but a bit more loose and her legs a bit closer.

The two stood across from each other, just observing each other, waiting for one another to make a move. And in a blink of an eye, the two were only mere inches away from each other.

With each breath they took, a kick or punch was blocked by either two. It began, almost little to no force behind their attacks. A brush, a tap, each of their attacks was but a mere assessment to each other, studying as they fought.

Like in their relationship days, they sparred to make enhance their hand to hand skills, but this was no spar. This was a fight to the death.

"You've gotten better." Erza said as she backed off, in a defensive stance.

"Ever since we broke up 3 years ago, I had to some problems controlling my anger," Mirajane did the same action. "So, I started to train my ass off, take more assignments."

**It's no use!** Erza looked over at Mirajane. **This hand to hand battle would only end in a standstill, I need to hurry up and finish this fight!**

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Mirajane said, reaching her right hand to her back pocket.

"Maybe." Erza glanced right over to her Sais, only a few feet away from them.

"Good," Mirajane took out a spare silenced handgun and quickly aimed at Erza. "Because this is where the fight ends!" She started to spray her bullets at her.

Without a second to lose, Erza dodged her bullets and picked her Sais up as she rolled towards them. She soon found herself running in a different corridor in the ship.

"Dammit Erza!" Mirajane quickly tried following her. She managed to pick up her other gun she had thrown earlier, now dual wielding them both.

Erza didn't dare look back and continued to run. From left to right, at this point, she had no idea where she was going until she made it to the deck of the ship. **I gotta end this quickly…** She said as she took cover behind a counter.

"Erza!" Erza could hear Mirajane's voice, closing in on her position. "Erza, where are you?"

Erza looked over and saw Mirajane with her dual wield weapons, trying to find her. **Alright, I'm going to have to think this through…** She ducked once more. She was thinking of a way to get past Mirajane's guns. **If I remember correctly, she's using two 9mms… with her first gun she fired 6 bullets and her second gun 8… she should only have 10 bullets altogether left to fire…**

"Erza, why do you insist on playing Cat and Mouse with me?" Mirajane still tried looking for the scarlet haired woman.

**Alright then, if we make her waste the remaining bullets in her guns, then I can end this right here…** Erza finally thought of a plan.

"Tell you what, you tell me where that pink headed candidate is and maybe I'll let you live." Mirajane was getting closer.

Erza peeked and glanced right over to Mirajane. "I'll pass on that offer." She responded, quickly and quietly moving from her position.

Mirajane instantly fired over to where she heard Erza. "Really? Did you grow attached to this guy?" Mirajane continued on with her search again.

"No!" She instantly retorted from her new position, but like earlier, she moved again. "I just want to do this on my terms, not yours!"

Mirajane once again shot a few bullets to where she thought she heard the woman. "Dammit woman…"

"Are you asking me this because you're actually jealous?" Erza asked, trying to provoke the blonde.

"Me? Jealous?" Mirajane stopped, standing right in the middle of the ship's deck. "No!"

"Seems to me you're jealous." Erza said, followed by a slight chuckle.

"Honestly Erza, I wouldn't blame you if you do have a slight thing for him," Mirajane now added her own provocation. "I mean, the way you looked at him back at the dance floor and vice versa, it was truly a heartwarming look."

"…" No comment this time by Erza.

"Oh, did I finally shut the little birdie up?" Mirajane laughed. "Did what I said have some truth to it?"

"Shut it!" Erza yelled.

Mirajane fired her bullets again at the location in which she heard Erza. She walked towards it slowly. "What? I'm just repeating what I've told you already." Mirajane looked over the counter and saw nothing. She must've moved again.

"That it's just going to get harder for me to kill him? It's only been a few days, nothing is going to hinder my progress." Erza repeated a few of the words Mirajane told her from a new location, this time behind some crates.

"Oh Erza, the way you're going at this with him," Mirajane continued to scour the deck for the scarlet haired woman. "It's not going to end well for either of you, that I'll assure of."

**She should only have 3 bullets left…** Erza was thinking of a new plan of attack. **If I rush her now and able to avoid the bullets, I should easily get the upper hand and win this easily…**

Erza slowly and quietly dashed around the crates and into a new location where she can easily rush the blonde assassin. "You know Erza, while you were doing this, I tool the liberty of doing my own research on something you might have a slight interest in."

Erza continued to be quiet, waiting for the right opportunity, however, that didn't stop her from listening to Mirajane.

"Are you staying quiet so I wouldn't be able to find you or are you listening well, Erza?" Mirajane cautiously walked. "I'll take it's the latter, either way though, like I said earlier, my research was pretty interesting."

"It's nothing about this contract, no, no, no," Mirajane continued. "It's something about our… let's say our little club." She looked around, back and forth, hoping to see a sign from Erza. "How much do you know about Jellal?"

**What is this woman on about?** Erza didn't try to listen to her mumbo-jumbo one bit, either it was a distraction or something else entirely to keep her on her toes.

"Has he told you I left the group entirely?" Mirajane revealed.

Erza wasn't the slightest affected by this. The way she'd tried to compete with the others and herself, her ego and the way she'd kill, it didn't surprise her that Jellal finally had enough of her shenanigans.

"I'm guessing you had a feeling about that, but let's not shift the topic now," Mirajane went back on track. "Point is, the man hardly tells you anything." She continued to say. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"

**Not in the slightest…** At this point, Erza knew Mirajane is just telling her nothing but endless crap.

"Oh wait, I'm leaving the most important thing out of the topic," Mirajane said. She was nearing Erza's location. "This is also something about your parents."

Erza felt a slight chill go up her spine, that's something she didn't expect from the blonde. **My parents?**

"Has he ever told you anything about them?" She asked her, hoping for an answer.

Erza still didn't say anything. The only thing Jellal has told her about her parents was that she was abandoned at an orphanage, nothing really as much as that, though the flashbacks she's been having say otherwise. **This woman…** Was she trying to hinder her allegiances to the group? **He couldn't have possibly lied to me about them…**

"Are you having doubts now?" Mirajane grinned. "I have more information about them but I'd rather not spoil the ending, hahaha."

Suddenly, Erza busted out of her hiding place, finally attacking the blonde. "I don't know what you know about my parents and how Jellal has anything to do to them but, now you die here."

Mirajane quickly reacted and started to shoot.

**One, two.** Erza counted the bullets as she dodged them. **Three… Four!** Erza quickly blitzed her. "You're out of bullets, this is my battle now!"

As she lunged toward Mirajane with her Sai in hand, suddenly, Erza felt a burn near the side of her stomach. Another bullet had fired from the barrel of Mirajane's gun. **W-What?** Erza instantly fell to the floor, dropping her weapons and a few feet away from them and Mirajane. "D-Did I miscounted?"

"Customized clip," Mirajane dropped her right handgun, now only holding her left handgun, pointed at Erza in her pool of blood. "Both of my guns had an extra bullet in them."

"D-Dammit!" Erza started to heavily breath, holding and trying to stop the flow of blood from oozing out if her with her hands.

Mirajane walked towards her. She kicked her Sai to the side and now stood by Erza. "How does that wound feel?"

"Fuck you!" She cursed at her. Mirajane then stepped on her wound. "Mmhmmm!" Erza tried her best not to yell at the excruciating pain Mirajane just inflicted on her.

"Come on, I dare you to say something like that again, bitch!" Mirajane now kicked the side of her stomach.

Like earlier, Erza tried to maintain her mouth shut as Mirajane continued to kick her as she was on the floor. "…"

"It's a shame this is how it's going to end my lovely bird," Mirajane finally stopped. "Because we had something in the past, I'm going to make this fast and painless."

Erza could barely maintain her eyes opened. She saw that Mirajane now pointed her gun at her once more. **Shit!** She now closed her eyes, waiting for the bullet to end her.

As she was about to pull the trigger, Mirajane suddenly found herself, being harshly hit by a pipe in her head, knocking her gun off her hand and into the ocean and herself on the ground.

Erza heard the loud whack and opened her eyes. "Natsu?"

"It looked you need help." Natsu, along with the metal pipe he carried, went to he side.

"I-I told you to… hide…" Erza tried to regulate her breathing.

"This looks like a bad wound," Natsu saw the gunshot wound to her stomach. "Did the bullet go through all the way?"

"I said-"

"Did the bullet go straight through!?" Natsu immediately cut her off. He asked her a yes or no question.

"… yes." She finally answered.

"Okay, doesn't look like she hit any vital organs." Natsu looked at the gunshot wound from different angles.

"Why you little…" Mirajane came back to her senses from his surprise attack. "How dare you hit me! You know how long it takes for bruises like these to go away?!" She touched the purple bruised up part of her forehead.

"Oh shut it woman." Natsu retorted. He didn't want to hear her complaints about that.

"You bastard!" Mirajane felt Erza's Sai near her and grabbed it. "This is where you die!"

She threw it right at him. As the Sai neared him, the action itself felt slowed.

In a slow-mo, the Sai was near his face however, Natsu, with his quick reaction, moved his head to the left, making the Sai go right by him. Still going in a slow-motion, Natsu managed to grab the Sai with his left hand in mid air which stunned both Mirajane and Erza. "How about you eat it instead!?" And in a quick swoop, Natsu threw it back.

Mirajane didn't know exactly what just happened there and felt the Sai's blade enter in her chest area, almost near the heart. "Guh!" She yelled out.

"That was-"

"Insane!" Natsu finished her sentence, shocked at his own action.

Mirajane didn't hesitate and pulled the blade out, now making her bleed quickly. "That was… something." She didn't expect this, especially from the pink haired democrat.

Mirajane was losing consciousness and dropped the blade to her side. She got up from where she was, which prompted Natsu to get the metal pipe he placed next to Erza.

"I'm not with you yet Mira!" Erza got herself up as well. Though she lost a considerable amount of blood, her fatigue failed her to lift her up.

"Erza!" Natsu helped her up.

"Sorry Erza, guess you don't get to hear the rest of the story." Mirajane walked right to the railing of the ship.

"Stop, don't you dare!" Erza was now standing up, leaning on Natsu for support.

"Remember my advice Erza," Mirajane looked back at the two and grinned. "Bye Erz."

Without a second thought Mirajane fell from the railing and onto the ocean.

"Dammit!" Erza said underneath her breath.

"We have to get you to the ship's doctor." Natsu told her.

"No, no one can know about t-this…" Were he last words before Natsu found her unconscious at his side.

"Erza!"


	9. Chapter 9

Natsu immediately carries the unconscious and bleeding Erza, bridal style.

Though his mind was to go to the Ship's doctor, Erza words echoed through his head as he was running through the Ship's interior corridors. _**No one can know about this…**_ Her words stuck inside his head in repeat.

Natsu had to choose and fast. **This woman!** He could feel some of the blood go through his white buttoned up shirt. **Fuck, alright let's just go to our room, it is the closest here!**

After several minutes he made it where Juvia had showed them their room. He bashed his door right in and placed Erza onto the bed. He quickly closed and locked the door and headed immediately to the bathroom where the first aid kit was.

There was no time to think anymore and Natsu simply ripped the med kit from the wall and brought it next to him to the bed. He went back in to get the bathroom towel, soaking it in hot water. He rushed right back with it.

He ripped off the blood soaked part of the dress, now showing the gun wound. A precise shot, went in and out and from the looks of it, did not hit any vital spots. With the brown towel, he placed and applied pressure to the entrance wound first. After a few minutes, some of the blood finally stopped coming and now did the same thing to the exit wound.

After finally stopping the wound from bleeding as much as it did, Natsu checked Erza's breathing and heartbeat. **Phew, she still alive!** He let out a small sigh of relief.

Though his hands and shirt were bloodied, he still continued on with her wounds, patching it up with the sutures and seams, cleaning the wounds as best as he could with the alcohol wipes and finally, wrapping around the bandages.

"Finally." Exhausted, Natsu wiped away sweat from his forehead and made his way to the single couch that was close to the bed. He didn't bother with the mess he made of dirty alcohol wipes and a few broken sutures and seams.

He sat there, awaiting her to finally gain consciousness.

…

A few hours passed, the night was now fading and the sun eagerly moving to show morning.

Erza finally gained consciousness. "… huh?..." She opened her eyes, having a bit of a blur vision as she came back. After a few seconds, her vision was back to normal and saw that she laid on the bed.

As she tried to move, she felt a small sting coming from her wound. She looked and saw that it had been patched. She tried moving slowly in hopes of evading the pain. "Eh…" She placed her right palm over her wound.

"You finally awake sunshine?" Erza looked over and saw Natsu, half awake on the single couch with his bloodied shirt.

"You p-patched me up?" She didn't expect him to have some medical background knowledge.

"You should be thankful," Natsu got up from his chair, slowly walking towards the bedside. "My dad was a Medic in the war, he taught me a few things here and there about patching up a wound or two."

"Then I am thankful." She saw the mess of he made of the medical equipment in the First Aid kit.

"Seriously though, would've been much easier for me to have taken you to the ship's doctor." Natsu groaned, still tired from watching over Erza.

"I just didn't want no one on the ship to know about the incident…" Erza sat on the bed in silence for a few seconds before speaking. "Speaking of incidents, what happene-"

"Don't worry, told the Janitor you had an _accident_ and without a lot of questions, he agreed to clean it." Natsu revealed. The bloody fight between Erza and Mirajane no longer seemed to have appeared on the ship.

"What about my gunshot wound?" She asked, looking at her ripped dress and bandages.

"The bullet went through and hit no vital spots or major organs," he told her. "Still, I urge you to go see a doctor about it, you may have a few small shards of metal in you."

"I'm okay, I have this doctor friend who owes me a favor." She told him. "Thank you again for this."

"Alright I guess." He didn't seem to question that.

"Are there any spare clothes?" She asked, hoping she could change out of her dreadful dress she wore.

"Yeah, I have to change too." Natsu walked over to the closet and opened it, taking out a pair of mismatching clothing.

"Is that all?" She looked at the pile of clothes.

"Yeah, while you change, I'm just going to pick up the mess." He started to pick up the unused materials and placed them back unto the first aid kit.

Erza, moving gently, looked through the pile of clothes to find a good pair of clothing to wear. She found a nice white blouse and good light blue jeans to wear and got up from the bed to go the bathroom. Wasn't an easy task anymore due to the pain from the wound.

"You need help?" Natsu saw her struggling to get up from the bed.

"I'm fine." Nonetheless, she got up and headed straight into the bathroom.

She closed the door behind her and stood in front of the mirror. She looked pale, probably because of the blood loss. She looked down at the sink and opened the water, preferably the cold. She poured some unto her hands and used it to wipe her face.

She took off her dress revealing her black matching colored bra and panties. She looked at her wound more closely, placing her right hand once more over it. She could remember the heat from the bullet as it entered her body. **Dammit Mira…**

She grabbed the jeans first. As she changed into her new clothes, her thoughts lingered to Mirajane's final words before meeting her demise with the water. _**How much do you really know of Jellal?**_ Those exact words echoed in her brain. **What did she mean by that? Is just to rile me up?** Erza shook her head, taking herself away from her thoughts.

Almost done changing. **And what exactly did she know about my parents?** She was still in her thoughts once more again. **I don't even remember them… the last thing I knew about them was being sent to an orphanage as a toddler…** She paused. This was something Jellal had told her.

The topic in her head was back to Jellal. **Was what he told me a lie?** She couldn't help but think bad of Jellal, he was practically the one who raised her. **No, this is just something Mirajane wanted to trick me with…**

"Oi, Erza, you okay in there?" Natsu's gentle knock on the door was enough to bring Erza back to reality.

"Y-Yeah, I'm alright." Erza hurried up. She looked in the mirror once more and tied her hair up. She headed back out.

"You sure?" Natsu asked her once more as she exited out the bathroom.

"Yeah, I was just taking it slow because of the wound." She explained herself.

"I guess," Natsu scratched his head. He now headed into the bathroom along with the first aid kit. "You want me to throw away the dress along with my shirt and the rest of the other garbage?"

"Yes please." Erza answered. She saw the room was finally cleaned and the bed sheets were taken off.

"Alright," Natsu had placed the first aid kit back to where it belonged. He came back out with Erza's bloodied and torn dress and places it in the bag in which Erza assumed to be the garbage. "There you go."

"Thanks." She appreciated it.

"Pass me those clothes, please," He pointed at the clothes at the corner of the bed. Erza picked them up and threw them at Natsu. "Thanks, I'm going to change now."

Natsu went ahead into the bathroom but didn't bother to close the door. He took of his shirt, revealing his six-pack abs which made Erza slightly blush. "… you gonna close the door or what?"

"Oh sorry." And with that, Natsu closed the door.

After several minutes, Natsu came back out in his new clothing: a black normal shirt and navy blue jeans. He had his dirty clothes in his hand placed it in the same bag he put Erza's dress.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. "Oi, Natsu, where has yo ass been all day?" It was the sound of Gray's voice, Natsu's best friend and the newly wed.

Natsu walked up to the door and opened it. "Oh sorry about that." He instantly smelled the scent of booze coming from Gray.

"Eeeyyy, what happened to the tux you were- once wearing?" A hiccup cut him mid-sentence and an unbalanced stance gave Natsu signals that his friend was indeed drunk.

"Oh, it got dirty and I just changed." Natsu explained.

"Did you nail that bodyguard of yours? Is that why you changed? Hahaha good job I knew you had it in you!" Gray continued to tippy toe around.

"I think you had enough to drink already." A small sweat drop came down Natsu's side of the face as he was embarrassed at what Gray was telling him.

"Noooo." Gray couldn't keep his balance and fell to the floor.

"Come on now fellow, let's take you back to your room." Natsu picked him up from his side, placing Gray's right hand over the back of his head and dragged him.

"I'll just wait here 'til you come back." Erza told him.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you even know it."

After several hours of waiting, the ship finally docked back at the docks. Awaiting Erza and Natsu was the limo in which they got here from.

Exhausted from the events, the long drive back to Natsu's mansion was silent.

Upon arriving, the two of them noticed Detective Laxus and FBI agent Gildarts, and based on their expressions they had on their faces, they weren't quite as happy to see them.

Natsu got out of the car along with Erza. "Thanks." He thanked the limo driver for bringing them home.

"Anytime sir." The limo drove to the back of the mansion.

"They look pretty pissed." Erza saw both Laxus and Gildarts stand in front of the mansion's doors.

"Nah, I'm sure they just have a rock in their shoe or something." Natsu as always tried to be optimistic at the situation.

"You know, you could've let us know beforehand that you were going to a party." Laxus told them as they walked passed them.

"I did leave a note." Natsu said.

"Tch, smartass." Laxus groaned at his response.

"So, what kind of party did you go to?" Gildarts asked as the four of them entered the mansion.

"Oh, a wedding party on a cruise liner." Natsu replied.

"Did anything happened?" Laxus asked.

"No." Like he and Erza talked earlier, it's better if they just pretend like nothing ever happened on the ship.

"Alright I guess, just making sure," Laxus was now leaving along with Gildarts. "Like yesterday, I'm gonna leave a few men posted outside, do not leave anywhere again, got it?"

"Got it." Both Erza and Natsu said in unison.

Gildarts and Laxus headed back to Laxus' car. "Why didn't you ask her about the woman?" Gildarts asked Laxus as he sat down in the shotgun part of the car.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence." Laxus started his car. He looked at his rear view mirror before getting out of the parking spot.

"Coincidence or not, we still should've asked that Erza chick." Gildarts told him.

"An alias isn't really a good reason as to why we should be questioning her." Laxus explained. Even if he did ask her before they left, it wouldn't really count in their investigation.

" _Detective Laxus, a body was just discovered near Lake Saber Beach, just a few miles away from where you are._ " Someone on the radio told him.

"What's so special about the body?" He grabbed the walkie-talkie part of the radio, talking back to HQ.

" _Because we sent another team over there and they think it's the assassin you and the FBI agent are looking for._ "

Both men looked at each other. "Alright we'll be there shortly." He radioed in once more.

" _Copy that._ " And with that both men drove off to the beach.

…

After several minutes of driving, they made it to the beach were there suspect lied dead.

The two got out of the car and headed in. They saw the first officers on scene and Laxus's MEs already looking at the body that was brought by the waves of the lake.

Gildarts talked to the officers while Laxus walked towards the trio. "So is this her?" Laxus asked as he saw the blonde. Dry purple lips and stab wound to the chest.

"Yup, I'm just using the finger scanner to see if we at least get an ID on her." Evergreen held a small machine which had the whole database of fingerprints. She placed the index finger of the dead woman's on the finger scanner and hoped for a hit.

"So what killed her? Drowning or the stab wound in her chest?" Laxus continued on with his questions.

"Stab wound," Freed said. He the pointed at the chest, showing Laxus his findings. "She died of massive blood loss. I'd be amazed if she lasted more than 5 minutes at best."

"How'd she end up here?" Laxus asked one more question.

"Maybe she was thrown off a boat or something?" Bickslow suggested to the other two.

"Could be." Freed said, putting his hand underneath his chin.

**BEEP!** The scanner didn't find anything. "I expected nothing less from the assassin."

Gildarts finally joined them. "The officers who came here first said that a couple found her here as they strolled around the beach."

"Anything else?" Laxus expected much more.

"Nada." Gildarts said.

"Guess it's going to be up to Levy with a face search." Evergreen placed the scanner back in her bag.

"I guess so," Laxus stared at the body once more. "Alright guys, let's just put her in a body bag and take her back to HQ."

"Aye." The trio said altogether.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, guys, guys! So there's an artist in DeviantArt that had accepted my request and made the dance scene between Erza and Natsu! Well, not exactly the same thing but it gives you a great vivid imagery of both!
> 
> h+t+t+p+:/+cdartcd+.+deviantart+.+com+/+art+/+Natza+-+618891553
> 
> Just take off all the "+" and the link to the art should work. In case it doesn't, the artist name is CDartCD. You should go check her other art, it's pretty amazing.
> 
> Okay, it's now story time!

"Can this scan thing work any faster!?" Gildarts asked the petite forensic scientist, growing impatient with every second. He looked at the screen along with Laxus, awaiting for match in the facial database system.

"Can you be more patient!?" Levy didn't like it when others hurried her work, especially from those she didn't know that well.

"Can you two can it?" Laxus tried to stop their bickering from ensuring any further.

"I would if this machine wasn't so goddamn slow!" Gildarts continued to complain.

"Oh oh." Jet and Droy sweat dropped. If anybody ever insulted Levy's machines, they would never hear the end of it.

"My computer is not slow! Now apologize to it!" Levy was now pissed. Guess the can of beans have finally opened.

"I will not apologize to an inanimate object!" Their bickering was now getting louder.

"I SAID APOLOGIZE!" Levy was about to lunge at him but Laxus stopped her.

Her arms flailed around the sides of Laxus body as she tried attacking Gildarts. Her action immediately scared the red headed agent. "Jesus Christ! Keep her away from me!"

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't mock her computer!" Laxus exclaimed. "Now can you apologize to it so we can get back to work!?" He sell held Levy back. She was small so it wasn't hard for Laxus to hold her back.

"Let me at him!" Levy grew more ferocious with her flailing though still nothing for Laxus to hold back.

"Alright, alright," Gildarts raised his white flag of surrender. "I'm sorry…for being a slow hunk of machine." He muttered the last part.

"What was that!?" Levy could've sworn she heard the man insult her machine.

"I said nothing!" Gildarts took his words back into his mouth.

"Hmm." Levy put his arms across her chest and looked the other way, still pretty pissed at the man.

"Thank you." Laxus finally had some peace and quiet.

Suddenly a second party walked into the forensic lab, joining the 5. "Any luck?"

Mainly Gildarts, Laxus and Levy turned to look and it was the Chief, Jura. "Oh, no, nothing yet, sir." Laxus answered.

"This assassin is pretty good," Levy had to admit, usually someone like her with her background would've at least have some criminal background. "So far, she's evaded the finger scanner and is coursing through the facial recognition scanner pretty easily."

"What if you added something else from the database?" Jura asked.

"Like what, exactly?" Levy raised an eyebrow at her boss. What was he getting at?

"Like instead of searching just at the criminal database, why don't you search for runaways? Or people who have gone missing?" Jura suggested.

"Hmm, that's actually pretty smart." Levy went back to her computer.

"Well if she's a runaway, wouldn't you like make her face younger?" Laxus now suggested.

"That too." Levy was behind her computer, adding more stuff to the search and de-aging the face of the assassin to her teenager years.

"Please, if the computer has been at this for almost 2 hours and has yet to find anything, I doubt adding those filters wouldn't change a thing." Gildarts was a bit pessimistic about it.

"And there," Levy finished in putting more to the search. "We should get a hit pretty so-"

And finally, they found a match.

"Holy crap!" Gildarts was in awe.

"Way to go Levy!" Jet and Droy quickly cheered in the background.

"That's the Levy magic for you." Laxus happily smiled, finally getting a hit.

"Alright," Levy opened up the picture of the young assassin to get more info. "Her name is Mirajane Strauss, ran-a-way from home at the age of 16. Mother and father died in a car crash and has two siblings, Lisanna and Elfman Strauss. Her sister was the one who reported her missing on December 14, 2003."

"Anything else?" Laxus asked, staring intently at the big screen filled with the information.

"Nope, no bank account, no police records," Levy scrolled down. "It's like this woman literally made herself invisible."

"Not entirely, she still has some siblings we can talk to." Gildarts pointed out.

"Where do they live now?" Jura asked Levy.

"Well Lisanna actually lives here in Magnolia City whereas her brother Elfman, lives two cities over in Rios." Levy searched up their living records.

"Guess we start with the sister then, huh?" Gildarts looked at Laxus.

"Good work men." Jura complimented their work.

"Uh-huh…" Levy looked at Jura, fake coughing towards him.

"And you too, Levy." Jura walked out of the room now.

"Alright Gildarts I'll meet you in the garage in a bit, I have to talk to Levy for a different thing." Laxus told him.

"Alright." Gildarts was the second person to leave the room.

"Guess we'll see you in the cafeteria room, eh Levy?" Jet said. Looks like he, Droy and her were in their schedule lunch.

"Yeah, save me a seat guys." She asked of them.

"Alright," the two of them said as they walked out. "See you."

Levy and Laxus were now the only ones in the lab. "Alright Levy, what did you find out about the flower?"

"Come here." Levy grabbed Laxus by the hand and brought him to a desk where the black rose stood in the spotlight of a lamp.

"Okay, now what?" Was Laxus supposed to see anything different about it?

Levy looked at her wristwatch and finally turned to look at the rose. "Now look."

Laxus turned from looking at Levy to looking at the black rose. "What the-?" Only this time, it wasn't black anymore.

"The color changed back to it's original scarlet red color." Levy told him.

After a minute or so, the color of the flower changed back to black. "How did it do that?" Laxus was still at awe at the rose.

"I believe it was genetically modified Rose, making it change the color of red to black in a certain amount of time." Levy added her inquiry on the rose.

"That's pretty cool, didn't think it can be genetically modified to change it's color." Laxus shook his head like he just learned something new in class.

"You'd be surprised at what you can do to genes," Levy smirked. "Speaking of surprises…" Levy turned to look at Laxus, almost in a flirtatious way. "What are we doing tonight?"

"If we can wrap this case up," Laxus brought Levy closer to her, almost embracing each other. "We can go to a fancy restaurant and after that, go back home and maybe do some-"

"Naughty stuff?" Levy smirked at the thought.

"If you say so." Laxus smiled brightly at the petite scientist and slowly reached in for a kiss.

Levy was on her tippy-toes and Laxus reached down a bit, meeting each other half way and kissed. Her soft lips up against hers, tongue fighting for dominance, which ended when the two gasped for air.

"It's a deal." Levy happily returned the smile back still in each other's arms..

"Let's just hope we don't have to work late." Laxus said.

"Don't jinx us now!"

…

Natsu and Erza were now in the guest room part of the house in Natsu's home in the second floor.

Considering the events that had happened at the Cruise party, neither of the two had spoken about since until now.

Erza sat down on the bed, without her shirt on, revealing her black bra once more and the bandages used for her gunshot wound. Natsu sat in front of her on a chair, checking to see the wound once more.

Slowly, Natsu took off the bandages which were now bloody. "Does it hurt?" He asked her.

"I-It only stings…" Erza held her breath as Natsu continued to slowly take off the bandages.

He finally made it to the end where he had stitched it up. "You're still bleeding, but not as much as before." With a towel in hand, he dipped it in a pot filled with steaming hot water and slowly dapped and cleaned her wounds.

"Ah!" She felt the burning sensation of the water hit her wound, gently but still making her breathe a little hard.

"Stop moving," her heavy breathing made it uneasy for Natsu to continue to clean it gently. "I don't want to hurt you, can you control your breathing again?"

"I-I'll try." This was Erza's first gunshot wound. She's been beaten, burned and even at times tortured but the pain from the gunshot wound lingered the most.

"Okay, you can turn around now, I need to clean the exit wound." He dipped the towel again in the hot water while waiting for Erza to move positions.

"I want to thank you again for this…" Erza slightly blushed. Thank god she had turned around or else she would've seen her face.

"No problem I guess." Natsu continued with his similar actions as he did to the entrance wound.

_**The way it's going between the two of you, it's going to end, badly…**_ Mirajane's words still lingered in Erza's brain. **Is she right? If I do this the way I intended of doing, would this end badly?** Her mind quickly trickled back to the dance. She didn't expect herself to enjoy it much less feel the emotion of loving someone. **I have to hurry this up, but how?**

"You okay, Erza?" Natsu brought her back from her mind.

"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about something." Erza quickly replied.

"About what exactly?" He wanted to know. "Is it about your crazy ex that tried killing us?"

"I would rather not have this conversation right now." She immediately told him.

"S-Sorry didn't mean it like that." He was finally done cleaning the wounds.

"It's… It's alright." She didn't mean to lash out at him like that. The thought of having Mirajane's final words in her head were quite enough already.

"But yeah, I'm sorry about that," he apologized once more. He got more bandages on his side and now was ready to patch her up once more. "You can turn back around now, I just have to put you the new bandages now."

"Alright." She held her arms up, letting him roll the long bandage around her stomach and back.

He tried doing it as best as he could considering he was only mere inches away from her stomach as he rolled the bandages around her waist. "…" She could feel his breath up against her skin, somewhat making her a bit red.

After just a few seconds, he was done. "Okay, that's that now." Natsu placed the bandages back in a med bag, took it and both the towel and pot as he went to put them away.

Erza, slowly, put her blouse back on and got off the bed. She leaned towards the floor to get the bloody rags to throw them away. Still having some pain issues, she managed to grabbed them.

Natsu went to the bathroom across from the guest room and placed the towel into the dirty laundry and the med bag into the sink's cabinet. He poured the rest of the not so hot water anymore down the drain and took it back to the kitchen.

He met Erza back in the kitchen. "You hungry?" He asked her as he placed the pot in the top cabinets above the stove.

"Yeah." She placed her palm over her wound once more.

"Does it still hurt? Did I tighten it too much?" He asked her as he saw her pain stricken face.

"I'm fine," she assured him. A few seconds passed and the pain went away. "You said your father was a medic, right?"

"Yup, taught me how to treat my wounds," Natsu walked towards the refrigerator and opening it. "That reminds me, I have to go visit him at the hospital this Friday."

"Is he a doctor?" Erza asked as she took a seat by the table.

"No, a patient," Natsu answered. "Stage 4 of lung cancer."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She tried to feel sympathetic towards him.

"Doctor's saying that the treatment he's undergoing isn't working anymore…" Natsu sighed bringing milk to the table. "Might only have a few weeks left."

"I'm very sorry to hear about that…" She apologized once more like if she's the one who gave his father cancer.

"You don't have to apologize for that," he slightly laughed as he brought out two bowls, two spoons and two different boxes of cereal. "How he got cancer was his fault, he started to smoke right after mom died a few years back, as a way to ease his pain."

"Oh really?" Learning more about his parents almost made her feel somewhat left out. She didn't know them, all she's got to remember by them is that she was left at an orphanage as a baby. Still, she continued to ask him more questions, as a way to better understand him. "How did your mother die if I you don't mind me asking?"

"You remember the tragic flight 97 airplane malfunction in 1999?" He asked her.

"I do." She remembered that. An airplane malfunctioned while it was on flight and crashed down killing all it's passengers and both it's drivers. A tragedy like isn't easily forgotten.

"She… she was on that flight." He deeply sighed as he placed the cereal boxes on the table: Cocoa Balls and Marshmallow Swirls.

"I figured much…" She lowly said.

"Let's just start another topic, shall we?" Natsu said, trying to lighten up the mood in the room. "What kind of cereal do you want?"

"Were having cereal for lunch?" She looked at him, skeptical at idea of having this for lunch rather than something more typical.

"It's all have really at the moment." He lightly chuckled.

"Fine, I guess I'll take the Marshmallows Swirls." She joined with a light laugh of hers.

"Thought you might say that."

…

Laxus and Gildarts were now in a patrol car, driving towards their destination.

It's only been 10 or so minutes of driving yet neither spoke, only driving halfway in silence before the agent finally broke the cold quiet in the car. "So how long have you and that blue haired scientist been together?"

"Ahem, what?" Laxus cleared his throat before answering. He was quite shocked to know that Gildarts saw right through him and her.

"You know what I'm talking about." Gildarts moved his eyebrows up and down with his forehead. He knew Laxus heard him the first time but at this point, he was somewhat mocking him.

"I'm impressed actually, didn't think anyone would besides my boss, Jura, would figure us out." Laxus told him. Though he would look at the agent, he was focused with the road instead.

"So your boss knows huh?" Gildarts continued with his questions.

"Well yeah, there's no rule against dating one of the forensic scientists," Laxus explained. "Only partners from what I recall."

"Yeah but still, I would never date a coworker." Gildarts stared out the window, conversing while watching a few people walk on the sidewalk.

"Well there's nothing wrong with dating a coworker, but whatever floats your boat buddy." They came to a stop at a red-light, not much further to their destination they are.

"I guess, still, you haven't answered my question though." Gildarts awaited for a response.

"Almost 2 years." The light turned green and Laxus continued to drive.

"2 years!?" Gildarts was quite amazed at the response. "Damn, I could barely make it past a month."

"Ha!" Laxus slightly laughed at the agent.

"And there's still people at your work place that don't know?" Having a long relationship is one thing, but keeping it a secret was another.

"Well there's a few people back at HQ who know we're dating," Laxus further explained. "Her parents, my gramps, a few of our friends."

"Then it's not so secret." Gildarts said.

"Well it's not but we're not out of the open like most people would." Laxus told him, turning a right on Unison Street.

"Ah," Gildarts now had some clearness added to his question. "So, you guys live together? Your place or her place?"

"My place but at this point, she practically owns everything." Laxus slightly chuckled at his own remark.

"Huh, maybe that's why I'm not so committed to my relationships," Gildarts sighed, putting his on the head part of the chair and looked up. "Then again if I wasn't so committed, maybe I would've found a good wife to help me raise my daughter, Cana."

"You have a daughter?" Laxus turned again.

"Yeah," Gildarts took out his wallet and inside the wallet, took out a small picture of him and a brunette. "That's her right there."

"Oh, nice," Red-light once more, stopping the car. Laxus glanced right over and saw the picture of the two of them. "How old is she?"

"27, she's on her last semester in college, won't see her 'til the end of the month." He put the picture back into his wallet and the wallet back into his pocket.

"Oh." The light turned green and Laxus stepped on the pedal.

"But still, 2 years? That's a long time, I'm surprised you haven't placed a ring on that finger." Gildarts told him.

"I'm kind of thinking of that actually," Laxus revealed. "I don't know though, I have no idea what she'll think of it."

"Hey, if you lasted this long with her, there's nothing that fuck that up for you." Gildarts patted Laxus's shoulder, trying to reassure him of the blonde's intentions.

"Thanks I guess." Laxus didn't feel a slight change in his mood but still, he knew what the agent was doing.

"Okay, we're here now."


	11. Chapter 11

Laxus parked his car right in front of the house. It was a small brown colored triangle pointed roof house, a cliché of a house you can find almost anywhere around the city.

The two got out of the vehicle and walked towards the front door. "Hey mister!" A little girl playing kickball with a friend came over to them, stopping them from going up the stairs onto the porch.

"Um, hello there." Laxus greeted the two.

"Are you two like cops or something?" The little girl asked them.

"Maybe," Gildarts told her. "So what brings you here little girl?'

"Are you here to visit the nice blondie who lives here?" She asked them while giving the two an innocent smile.

"Oh you know who lives here?" Maybe Laxus could get a bit of info on the Strauss sister before going and knocking on the door.

"I think her name was Lisanna or something like that." The girl's friend said.

"Well we know that much as well," Gildarts chuckled as the two kids gave them information they already knew. "Anything else besides that?"

"She hasn't gotten out of her house in the last few days." The little girls answered.

"And her cats have been meowing a lot lately." The boy added.

"She has cats?" Gildarts asked nervously.

"Not fond cats now, agent?" Laxus snorted, holding back his laughter.

"I have cat allergies, so yes, I'm not fond of cats." Gildarts rolled his eyes at the Detective.

"Yeah, she has 3 of them," the little girl held up three fingers. "Snowball, Cherry, and Rick."

"Alright, thanks for the lovely information children," from the corner of the detective's eye, the next door neighbor looked at them, probably the little girl was their daughter. "Now run along now, I think your mother is calling you."

The two children looked behind, back from where they came from and then looked back at them. "Okay now, bye." The two of them said in together and ran back into the direction they came from.

"Cute children." Gildarts said as he saw the two children head back inside their house.

"Would it be too soon to say that I want a kid?" Laxus scratched his head.

"Yes, yes it would be," Gildarts answered. "Come on now detective we have someone to meet."

"Right." The two continued on with their task and walked up onto the porch.

Laxus rang the doorbell in hopes of the Strauss sister, Lisanna, answering whilst Gildarts peeked through the window as best as he could while the drapes covered most of the view. "Hello, Ms. Strauss, are you home?" Laxus continued to ring the bell.

"Try knocking." Gildarts suggested.

Just as Laxus was about to knock, the door slightly opened by itself with the sudden breeze. "It's not locked?" The detective instantly looked at the agent.

"I'll go through the back." Gildarts whispered as he took out his gun and quietly headed out to the backyard through the side passage.

Laxus took out his gun and slowly opened the door with his left hand. "MPD!" Laxus yelled out into the house.

Slowly, he entered the house. Only the sounds of his footsteps, the floor creaking as he took his steps and the sound of a leaky faucet coming from the kitchen can be heard. The first room he entered was the living room. For the most part, everything looked clean besides the mess on the coffee table and the TV on.

He made it towards the kitchen where he met up with Gildarts. "Anything?" He whispered.

"Nothing yet." The two split up once again.

Gildarts headed upstairs whilst Laxus took the basement. Just as he opened the door to the basement, an awful stench hit him like a brick wall. "Oh god…" His stomach instantly turned green.

He covered his mouth and nose with his jacket. He held his breath once more before mustering up the strength to enter the basement.

He slowly walked down the stairs until something caught his attention. A decomposed dead body inside a carton box under the room's flickering light. "Oh…" The body made the smell a bit more gruesome now.

"Nothing upsta-" Gildarts cut his own sentence when he inhaled the odor of death as he went downstairs with Laxus. "Bwuuh…" He held both his breath and vomit.

"I think I found her…" Laxus told him, still trying hard not to vomit himself.

Gildarts put his gun away and placed both his hands over his mouth and nose and continued to press on to go down into the basement. "How long has she been down here!?"

"I give it more than a week old." Laxus did the same thing as Gildarts.

They approached the box. "There's something on the wall…" Though there was light, it was dim, which made it hard for it to see the rest of the basement.

Thankfully, the light was movable and Laxus pointed the light at the body of wall.

What they saw only sent shivers through their spines. _**LET'S PLAY A GAME, DETECTIVE,**_ were the words that were written in blood on the wall.

…

A few more patrols were called out to the house and the MEs as well.

"Who could do this to another human being?" Evergreen said, wearing a face mask as she took out the bloodied bones from the box and placing them on a white sheet next to her.

The room was now filled with bright LED lights. "A psychopath." Freed said as he helped her with the bones.

"Now, now, not all murderers are psychopaths." Bickslow said, taking pictures of the box, the bones and the words on the wall.

"Can it you three." Laxus told them, now wearing a face mask himself.

"Sorry boss." The three finally shut their yaps.

"We found nothing around the house sir." A cop came down the stairs and informing the detective.

"Alright." As he saw the grunt cop going away, Gildarts came back down to the basement with a face mask as well.

"How are the MEs doing?" Gildarts asked.

Laxus only nodded his head towards them, telling him to look for himself.

Gildarts looked towards them. "Oh."

"Oi, detective, you said that the girl also had cats?" Freed asked.

"Yeah, well, the neighbor's little girl told us." Laxus answered.

"Would you tell the other officers to look for them? They probably starved and they may have started to eat the body." Freed continued.

"I'll go and tell them," Gildarts happily volunteered. "Just looking at this place makes my stomach hurt." And with that, the agent rushed out of the basement.

Laxus now walked towards the trio. "Anything that could tell you the cause of death?"

"The body was severely eviscerated," Evergreen showed Laxus the deep cuts on the bone. "It's too early to assume any cause of death."

"Is it also too early to assume this is the assassin's sister as well?" Laxus had hoped.

"No, the bones are really the woman's." Bickslow said as he continued to take more pictures.

"Yeah, the bone structure tells us that this was a Caucasian woman in her late 20's, early 30's, all that fit the sister." Freed said.

"I was hoping it wasn't." Laxus deeply sighed.

"Once we get back to the lab, I'll do some DNA tests and Levy can put image on the skull with her computer, just to be sure about it." Evergreen told him an in attempt to bring some of his stress down.

"Alright." Laxus massed the his neck with his right hand.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about who killed her and about the message they left you?" Bickslow looked at Laxus and the blood written message on the wall simultaneously.

"You think it was the sister?" Freed threw in another question.

"No, it's probably just some other psychopath." Evergreen answered.

"I think it was the sister."

"Are you only saying that because I think not?"

"I think Evergreen is right, I think it's someone else who's trying to play a game with the detective."

"Oh come on, you guys really believe that?"

The three of them started to bicker once more only causing Laxus to get a migraine from it. "WILL YOU GUYS SHUT THE HELL UP!?" Laxus yelled at them and like that, silence ensnared the room.

"Sorry boss." The trio said in synchronization.

"Thank you."

…

The day went by quickly. Laxus was now back in his office doing finishing his paperwork.

A familiar petite bluenette scientist came by his office. "Are we still on with our date tonight?"

"Hmm," Laxus turned to look at the door and saw Levy standing right in front of it. "Oh, hey Levy." He didn't sound to enthusiastic upon seeing her enter his office.

"I guess that's a no," she saw this coming but still, Laxus being stumped and overworking was killing her mood. "Staying the night?"

"Unfortunately," Laxus stopped writing, placed the pencil on the papers and wiped away sweat from his face. "I'm really sorry about this."

"Don't be," though she wanted to spent the rest of the day with him, Levy knew that the case was important. "I heard the way you found her was pretty bad."

"Yeah, it was." He could still remember the gruesome image of the body inside the box under the flickering dim light in the basement. An image like that would always linger in the back of your head in this line of work.

Levy walked closer to his desk. "Bickslow also showed me the blood written message on the wall," she grabbed his left hand with both of her hands. "Aren't you at least bit worried about it?" She nervously asked him.

"Just a tiny bit," Laxus truthfully told her. "Don't worry, if the message is directed at me, I won't let anything happen to you."

"You promise?" Levy asked.

Laxus gently dragged Levy towards him, hugging and caressing each other on the chair. "I promise."

"Ahem!" Suddenly, Gildarts caught their attention towards him.

"Oh uh, hey." The two quickly separated and acted like nothing happened in front of the agent.

"I should be going now," Levy now walked out of the room. "See you back at home."

"See you." He waved goodbye at her.

"Well that was unexpected." Gildarts entered the office.

"Sorry about that." Laxus scratched behind his ear, embarrassed that the agent had to see that happened in his face.

"It's fine really," Gildarts took the chair across from Laxus. "Anyways, I'm here to tell you that my work here is officially done."

"What? Does your boss not think that what happened to Lisanna Strauss is not connected in anyway to what happened to Mirajane?" Laxus felt his anger coming up. Does the FBI not have the decency to at least check up into it?

"Sorry man, as much as I want to continue this, my boss just wanted me to investigate the Dark Rose case and it's finally been cracked by his standards," Gildarts deeply sighed at the news he's given the blonde detective. "I have to go back now."

"Alright I guess," the anger he felt inside was no longer there. "It was nice working with you man." Laxus stood up from his chair and with his right hand, tried to shook his hand.

Gildarts did the same thing, firmly griping his hand for the handshake. "Yeah you too," just as he was about to head out, he stopped right in the office's door way. "Oh almost forgot."

"What?" Laxus stared blatantly at the agent.

"You told me back in the car drive that you were nervous about getting an engagement ring for your girl," Gildarts told him. "If you love her a lot and vice versa, don't be nervous, she'll definitely say yes."

"That's some good advice." Laxus said.

"Yeah, if you say it with your heart, she'll definitely say yes." Gildarts continued.

"Thanks man, I appreciate it." Laxus thanked him for the advice.

"Alright now, see you again." Gildarts finally left.

Soon after Gildarts left, Laxus got himself up from his chair and went down to the ME's office where the body was.

Several minutes of wandering around the Department, he finally made it to the basement. As he entered, the only ME in sight was Evergreen. "Hey." Laxus greeted as he entered.

"Oh hey, just the man I was looking." Evergreen turned to look at the blonde detective while writing down something on her clipboard.

"Just came down here to see your progress," on the table laid the bones of whom seem to be Lisanna Strauss. "Where are the other two?"

"Freed went home already and Bickslow was going to grab something to eat." Evergreen answered.

"Did you find the cause of death?" Laxus moved along to the topic at hand.

"Yes," she brought him along closer to the autopsy table where the bones were cleaned and organized in the way it should look in a body. "Upon closer inspection, I found a couple of stab wounds." She explained her findings. "Common kitchen knife was used, but the extent of the attack was brutal."

"How brutal?" Laxus asked.

"The person was stabbed at least 15 to 20 times in the abdomen, but not fast, but slowly, as if the killer was enjoying giving the person the stabs." Evergreen explained further.

"Geez, overkill might not be the right word for this." Laxus had an alarming stare to his face as he gazed at the broken bones in the chest area where the stab was made.

"You're telling me." Evergreen took a seat on her chair, exhausted at the work she's done.

"Have you notified her brother?" Laxus asked.

"Yeah, says he's coming by tomorrow." Evergreen sighed.

"When he comes, which body are you going to show him first?" Laxus took the seat next to her.

"Why not both at the same time?" Though she's showed people their loved ones before, this was the first time Evergreen had to show sisters killed from different sides: one who was killed slowly and the other who worked as an assassin who, predictably, died in her line of work.

"I guess." Laxus deeply sighed.

"You had plans with Levy didn't you?" Evergreen asked.

"Yeah, too bad my work life is getting in the way." Laxus slowly turn his chair from left to right, steering it with his legs.

"I'm sure she understands, she's in the same line of work as you," Evergreen told him. "Oh well, not exactly but she still handles the evidence and stuff."

"Yeah I guess you're right about that," she was right. There have been many times where the two had to work overnight, still that never really stopped their relationship before. "Speaking of Levy, I wanted to ask your opinion on something."

"And that is?" Evergreen waited for him to tell her.

"How… do I propose to Levy?" He mustered up the strength to finish his sentence.

"You're asking my opinion on that?" Evergreen was slightly shocked to hear this words come from his mouth, out of all people.

"I figured since you're a girl, your opinion would be rather insightful." Laxus explained.

"While I respect you for having to come for me for this advice, I'm going to have to tell you that you're barking up the wrong tree buddy." Evergreen fixed her glasses.

"Oh come on, help me out here." Laxus wept fake tears.

"Just be yourself, is how she fell in love with you in the first place." Evergreen assured him of that.

"I know that, it's just, the way I need to plan it." Laxus told her. His heart was in the right place, just not sure which direction it wants to go.

"Look, the way I see this for you is two options." Evergreen said, clearing her throat.

"Two?" Laxus gave her a puzzled stare, not sure about what options she's talking about.

"1. Go out of your comfort zone and do something with her you've never done with her, most likely, she'll say yes when you two are done and you're on your knees proposing to her," Evergreen held her index finger up. She now took out her middle finger, marking the number as 2. "Or 2., do some type of cliché and hope for the best."

"Out of my comfort zone? That sounds a bit more complicated than anything else." Laxus scratched his head as he thought of other ideas.

"Trust me, as long as you tell her from the bottom of your heart, she'll say yes." Evergreen looked at her wristwatch and got up from her chair.

"I'll tread fully take your advice." Laxus did the same thing.

"Then I'm glad I helped." Evergreen gave him a small but reassuring smile.

"Yeah, thanks."

…

Erza was now back at her hotel room. The police guards had finally let her go home.

In her pajamas, she laid on her bed, staring at her roof of her apartment. **RIING!** Her phone started to ring.

She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Jellal, calling for the fifth time in a row. She chose to ignore the first 4 calls, as she was conflicted at what everything that has transpired in the last few days.

Her phone continued to beep. As much as she wanted to continue to ignore his calls, she finally chose to answer him. "Hello?" She greeted followed by a sigh.

"Erza, why have you been ignoring me?" She could hear the annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry, I was in the shower." She lied, hoping it was enough for him to back off of her.

"You know what, whatever," he didn't bother to ask more questions about the earlier calls. "I was just calling to ask if you know what happened to Mirajane."

Mirajane, the least person Erza wanted to think about before going to sleep. "What about her?"

"One of my contacts says that the MPD found her dead body near the beach," Jellal told her. "Did you have something to do about that?"

"She was interfering with my contract, so I has to dispose of her." Erza couldn't lie at him forever.

"Is that so?" Jellal asked. His tone quickly changed from anger to intrigued.

"Yeah." She sighed once more.

"Good riddance I suppose." Jellal didn't know how to feel about her being killed by Erza much less by any other person.

"Is this the only thing you called me about?" Erza yawned.

"My client is getting impatient, he wants to know when you're going to kill you-know-who." Jellal told her about his predicament with his client.

"I got it." As much as Erza thought she was prepared, she wasn't, not yet anyways.

"I'll give you 2 more weeks," Jellal gave her a deadline. "If he's not dead in 2 weeks or less, I'm going to send Dobengal to finish the job."

"What!? You're giving me a deadline!?" Erza raised her voice at her phone. She always took her time seducing and killing her targets, but now she was given a deadline. It absurd her that much that Jellal would do that. "And why on earth will you send him?"

"You're taking way too long on this contract," Jellal told her. "That's why I also sent Minerva to deal with that detective and the rest of the cops."

"Out of all the people to distract the cops, you sent her?" Minerva was unstable and much less unpredictable. She'd kill pretty much anyone if it pleases her.

"Yeah," Jellal answered. "Like I said, you have 2 weeks, don't disappoint me."

"Hold up." She stopped him from hanging up.

"What?' He waited for her to respond.

Mirajane's words echoed through her brain again. Would she ask him of her parents again? Would she ask him if he's lied to her before. All these things ran through her head but none of which she'll speak of anytime soon. "You know what, never mind."

"Fine, I guess." And Jellal finally hanged up.

Erza took the phone away from her ear and placed it back on her bed. _**You have 2 weeks, don't disappoint me Erza**_ , those were the final words that echoed through her head before finally going to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> En-Cher-Blue from tumblr made the newest cover art. She's also a fan of this story and a great artist, you should definitely check out her stuff, she's another one of the fewest people who makes art for Natza/Nerza.
> 
> http://en-cher-blue (.) tumblr (.) com/image/147641722724
> 
> ^Just take off the paranthesis.

Days passed by and the clock was ticking for Erza as her deadline was nearing. She usually would do things by her terms and her rules, yet each time she tried, a crazy ex would try to kill her target or her having-doubts boss would try to rush her. Either way, the job had to be done one way or another.

Though her escapades with Natsu essentially brought them to political parties, speeches in front of large crowds and other types of political businesses, today was quite different. Today was something more personal: Natsu had gone and seen his father at the hospital he was checked into. For the past several months, he was being treated for his lung cancer.

She wore regular civilian clothing but still had her Sais hidden underneath the bottom part of the pants. Natsu, as usual, wore a suit and tie. Today was quite hot in temperature so Natsu took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and had undid his tie, walking around with his jacket over his shoulder, tie over his neck and the top buttons from his white long sleeved shirt unbuttoned.

Inside the hospital, they made there way through countless of patients and doctors alike, making it to the elevator and going to the 8 floor where Natsu's father was. Again, making there way through the busy hallways of the hospital, they made it to the room.

Three patients in the room, separated by curtains, though that didn't stop the three elderly patients from talking. "Hey, Igneel, your kid is here today." The first patient said through the curtains, alerting hum of his presence. His name was Jim who was being treated for a nasty case of uncontrollable diarrhea.

"Oh, I'm over here Natsu." The third patient was the last one by the window. Natsu and Erza walked towards the window and saw the elderly man, just laying down on his bed. Erza finally got to see him: like your typical old man except he had a few noticeable battle scars around his face. Natsu wasn't lying to her when he had told her about his father once being in the army.

"Hey dad." Natsu greeted, walking near the side of the bed and taking his father's hand to shake.

"Who's your lady friend?" Like the same reaction Erza would get from men, Igneel eye-goggled her.

"Oh, this is Erza, my bodyguard," Natsu greeted the two for them. "Erza, this is my dad, Igneel."

"How you doing sir, pleasure to finally meet." Erza extended her right hand for a handshake.

"The pleasure is all mine, Erza." For an old man, he still had an excellent grip and shook her hand.

"Natsu wasn't kidding when he told me you've seen your fair share of war." She continued to look at his scars near his face. Even as an assassin, she couldn't really tell which weapon made which scar.

"Yeah, I served in '68 when Minstrel tried to invade Fiore, Seven and Iceberg," He told her his battle history. "But look at us now, we're all in peace now."

"Well, I thank for your service." Erza gave him a small smile.

"I appreciate that, miss." Igneel returned the favor.

"Oh, you should show her that one scar." Natsu told his dad.

"What's scar?" She looked at both men, intrigued at what scar the pinkette was referring to.

"Ooh, that scar," the old man sat up straight and then raised his shirt, revealing a long scar that reach from the right side of the chest and went long downwards to his stomach. "He's talking about this scar."

"That's a pretty big scar you have that," not many things surprised Erza, but this was a moment in which she was. "How did you even survive a cut that big?"

"You didn't tell her that I was a medic?" Igneel looked at his son.

"I did." Natsu answered.

"Oh, well you see, I was standing behind a trench trying to reload my M14," he remembered the certain anecdote like it was yesterday. "As I was changing my magazine, this guy comes from out of nowhere with a machete and comes down into the trench." He gave them a vivid imagery. "That guy was one tough son of a gun, he took out my whole crew. I was the last one before he charged at me with it. He slashes the crap outta of me, almost trying to take out my guts. Luckily, I was done reloading and I shoot him right in the head."

"Next thing you know, I'm on the ground, desperately using all of my medical tools to try to at least improvise and stall the wound from making me bleed out," he cleared his throat and pulled his shirt down. "And then, the cavalry finally arrives. They take me back to the main camp and helped me with my wound." He then slightly chuckled. "They wanted to sent me back home but, like my son is, I was a stubborn walrus and continued to fight until we won."

"That's amazing." Erza's eyes glimmered with amazement from the old man's story.

"That's my dad for you." Natsu laughed as he patted his father's shoulder.

"That was the closest time I ever came face to face with death." Igneel told her.

"I'm going to get something to drink and go see what's taking your doctor long," Natsu started to walk away from the bed. "You guys need anything?"

"A cup of water would be nice." Erza answered.

"You think you can bring me a cup of joe?" Igneel asked.

"Yeah, not a problem," Natsu was leaving the room. "I'll be back."

Besides the other two patients in the room, Erza and Igneel were left alone. "So, besides being my son's bodyguard, are you two like a thing?"

"W-What?" Erza's face instantly turned a shade of red. "N-No, we're not seeing each other."

"Really?" Igneel was rather surprised at the news given to him.

"Yes, really." Erza said in her flustered state.

"Wow, a pretty woman and yet my son has not once tried to flirt with you?" A profound look appeared on Igneel's face.

"No…" The look on Erza's face betrayed her response. The thought of the dance back on the boat appeared on her mind as well as a few peculiar moments in the past few days they've had.

"So he's actually tried to flirt with you?" Igneel asked.

"Well, I wouldn't call them flirtatious actions." Erza tried to avoid eye contact with Natsu's father and played her long hair.

"What would you call them then?" The old man waited for her response.

She thought for a minute before giving an answer. "They were more like surprises."

"He does a lot ever since he was a kid," Igneel told her. "But that's beside the point." The old man laid back down on his bed. "Do you like him?"

"No." She instantly responded.

"You say that, but your body language tells me a different story." Igneel said.

"Oh really?" Erza asked. What did her body language tell the man?

"While I was telling you the story, I noticed that you couldn't help but look at my son in a nice looking way," Igneel explained. "And your body was loose, more relax when he's around."

"How could you possibly know that?" Erza didn't think he would actually be telling her this. She was just watching over her target. But were his words true?

"Look, I was married for almost 35 years," Igneel had some knowledge on the topic. "I assume my son told you about his mother, correct?"

"Yeah, she died in a plane crash." Erza remembered that talk.

"Well you see, my wife and I, we were madly in love," Igneel continued to explain. "The faces we would give each other, how are body language interacted with each other, that's how I know the way he sees you and vice versa."

"He sees me… the same way?" Erza asked.

"Yeah," Igneel answered. "He's very easy to read, however, you're not."

"And why is that?" Erza took a seat from behind her and brought it close to the bed, now sitting down next to the old man.

"You're conflicted," Igneel explained. "You acknowledge that there are some feelings there yet, you know that somewhere in your brain, that it's only going to hurt you." He cleared his throat once more. "That you know that it's going to end bad in some way."

And there it was, the words she thought she would never hear again in her brain, that it's only going to end bad. The same exact words Mirajane told her. "…"

"Let me ask you, when was the last time you've ever fallen in love?" Igneel said.

Erza never really loved anyone in a way. It's true she and Mirajane had something, but it was more physical than anything in the emotional department from a typical relationship. Every other thing however was either just a fling, a way to seduce and kill her target or simply just a simple booty call. "Never." She finally answered him.

"Is that why you feel conflicted?" Igneel asked another question.

**Besides trying to kill him?** Erza was now in her thoughts. "No." She answered with no again.

"Your just gonna answer with no? Or you just don't know?" He asked her.

"I don't know, okay? I'm just… don't think it's going to work out." Erza sighed.

"I see." Igneel looked outside his window before looking back at the scarlet haired woman.

"Don't get me wrong, he's a good man, a great man but I just… I don't want to hurt him or myself." Erza told him. Her word a were true, for a man with his goals, she's surprised that a man like him can become president.

"It's fine, maybe not now but maybe later when you no longer doubt yourself," Igneel told her. "Just when the time comes, do please protect for me, I don't have much time left to do it myself."

"I'll… I'll try." She told him. It was a lie but she couldn't help but feel some empathy in words.

"I'm back guys," Natsu came back. He had 2 water bottles and a cup of coffee at hand. "I talked to the doctor already."

"I don't have much time do I?" Igneel knew it was hard for Natsu.

"… y-yeah." Natsu tried to keep a straight face.

"It's okay son." Igneel still tried to keep a smile on his face.

"It's not though," Natsu's nose wrinkled, holding back his tears. "It's just not fair."

"I know son, I know." Igneel tried to comfort him.

Erza got up from her chair and got the things from Natsu's hand. "I… I'm sorry about all this…"

"You don't have to apologize for that…"

…

An hour or two passed and both Natsu and Erza were finally driving back to Natsu's place.

The only noise coming from inside the car was silence and the radio. It was on a classical instrumental channel. It didn't bother either of the two.

Though it was Natsu's car, Erza was the one driving them around. In the passenger seat, Natsu looked outside his car window, typical cliché of the sad man he was unintentionally interpreting.

As Erza slowed and stopped the car in front of a red light, she couldn't help but take a small glance over to his side. "You okay?" She knew what was on his mind, yet she still asked what the problem was.

"I'll manage," he gulped down some saliva. He stopped staring out the window and looked back at Erza. "Thanks for asking."

As their conversation was about to start, so did the start of rain. Drip, drip, drop were the sounds as the light amount of rain tapped the car's windows.

"As if the mood wasn't already depressing…" Natsu annoying sighed.

"Maybe I can just changed the radio stati-"

Natsu looked at her in the most uptight way any man can look at a woman: in annoyance. It was bad enough that the setting changed, he didn't want to risk the chance of having to hear the unpleasant music sounds of sadness, as any typical movie or TV show would do to show irony.

"Okay, I'll just leave the station be where it's at then." She retreated her right hand from the radio and placed it back on the steering wheel.

"Thank you." Natsu sighed.

The light turned green and immediately Erza continued to drive straight until they made it to the next traffic light where she turned to the right.

The rain turned more violent as the rain drops dropped harder and thanks to the humidity, caused fog, making it a bit of a hassle to drive.

Erza turned the headlights on in hopes of making out some clarity in the road ahead of her. "Wow, that changed really fast."

"Huh, you're telling me." Natsu looked outside both his window and front window of the car, trying to make out what's in the fog.

Though the fog made visibility difficult, both of them managed to see the traffic light ahead of them. The light was still green but it soon changed to yellow, making Erza slow the car down.

"Erza…?" Natsu noticed that the car's speed didn't in the very least slow down.

"I'm trying!" Erza pushed down on the brake lever, already having both her foot and lever already at the floor.

"Shit, Erza!" The light in front of them turned red.

Without much left to do, Erza pulled the emergency brakes but it was too late. "Shi-" The air bags immediately went off, knocking the two unconscious just as the car hits something pretty hard.

**Boom** , they crashed with another car that was crossing the street. Their cars were in the middle of the street and only the fog was their witness to this accident.

The sounds of both the cars alarms went off, wailing into the harshness of the pouring rain and the thick fog as the both the passengers and drivers of the two cars were knocked unconscious…

 


	13. Chapter 13

"…nngh…" Erza had finally awoken, finding herself on the bloodied air bag that popped out of the steering wheel. The first thing she does is inhale some air only to be welcomed with smoke instead. With blur vision at the moment, she feels the pain-induced headache she was having from the crash.

Within seconds however, her vision was back to normal, now seeing the collateral damage she'd done with the car. The car in front of her was totaled, as well as the car she was driving in herself. The front of the car was totally smashed, seeing pieces from what seemed to be it's motor and engine sticking our with several other but smaller ones as well and with that, left it smoking.

The fog and rain had also stopped, making the street visible for her to see.

She looked to her right side hoping to see if Natsu was alright. He wasn't there, only seeing an empty seat by her side. "What the?" She immediately took off her seat belt and got out of the car only to find the other car empty as well.

With Natsu nowhere in sight and the other car empty, Erza turned to look around the street: still nothing. No witnesses, no bystanders, hell not even birds were around to look at the crash at hand. **What the hell is happening here?**

And with a blink of an eye, everything suddenly changed: the streets were now a deep green covered forest and Erza was right in the middle of it. **What just happened!?** With nothing in sight but trees, Erza could frantically turn to all her sides, trying to find a way out of it.

With no other options, Erza ran. With no directionality, she was just left with randomly running until she found something to led her to civilization. **There's no way I went from being in the middle of a road to being in the middle of nowhere!** She continued to run, pushing beyond her physical limitations. **This has to be some kind of dream!**

She finally made it to the end of the forest and entered the side of the road. She stopped in her tracks, gasping for air as her lungs needed to refuel. **Thank god.** Erza panted rapidly but after a few minutes, she was able to pace her breathing once again.

Erza continued to run, this time on the road until she found someone to help her. She continued to find that someone until she saw a car crash, only this one crashed into a tree.

Similar to that of the one she woke up to, she ran towards it. "Hey! Are you guys alright?" She yelled as she ran towards the crash.

The car was a grey Hyundai Tiburon as Erza read from the back of the car.

She was right by the driver's side of the window, finding an unconscious red headed man and on the passenger side of the car, a dark haired woman. Both of their faces were heavily bloodied as was their airbags that were meant to protect them.

She tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside. Left with no other options, with all her upper body strength, she elbowed the window, breaking and shattering the glass on to the man. She unlocked the door and opened it.

She checked for a pulse but it was too late, he was far gone. Erza now went to the passenger side, only find the same results as the man, the brunette was gone too. **Damn it…**

Suddenly, she heard a faint cry. A child's cry at that. Erza turned around and checked the backseat only to find something more shocking. "No way…" Her voice trembled, her eyes widening, she couldn't believe who she found.

The crying, it came from her child self. She was at a loss of words. Like staring into a mirror of the past, Erza could only help but stare at her child self, crying for her parents. " _MAMA! PAPA!_ " The only words she cried out.

**This… this is another memory…** Erza finally realized what she was in.

She heard another car come from behind her, only this one was all-round black. _Mercedes W140_ , was the car. The car parked right behind the bad crash and single silhouette covered man came out of it. The figure walked slowly to the car crash.

As Erza did, the silhouette figure did all the things she did and that was check for any signs of life. The figure then turned it's attention to the cries of the small child Erza in the back.

He opened the car door, slowly. " _Little girl, are you okay_?" The voice was distorted.

" _My mama… my papa…_ " Little Erza continued to cry.

" _There, there little girl, it's alright,_ " the silhouette figure carried out the little scarlet haired girl. Erza could only stair and watch the whole thing go by. " _What's your name little girl_?" He asked.

" _... my name is Erza…_ " Her pouring eyes turned to single drops, silently sobbing.

" _Erza_?"

"Erza!"

Erza was finally conscious. Instead of finding herself in the car, she found herself laying on the floor and right beside her was Natsu. "Hey, are you okay?"

"What… what happened?" As she sat up, she placed her hand over her head, feeling the blood pour out of her wound she sustained.

"We crashed." He pointed at the cars.

"Was there… anyone else?" She asked.

"Yeah," Natsu turned to his left, the 2 other people from the other car were placed right next to them, still yet to come out of there unconscious states. "An ambulance is coming already."

"That's… good…" She sighed, taking a deep breath.

…

Finally back at his apartment from the all-nighter he pulled, Laxus found himself in front of his doorstep. Tired, it took him longer to find and get his keys from his right pocket. He felt the cold nickel silver keys at the tip of his fingers and grabbed them, taking them out of pocket and proceeded to come inside his apartment.

Fatigued, he closed and locked the door behind him, threw his coat on the coat racket and simply trailed off into his living room and falling onto his couch. "Ah! Home sweet home…"

Suddenly, he felt a smaller and lighter person fall on top of him, hugging the man from behind. "Took you long enough to come home."

"Oi, it's not my fault you got here an hour before me, Levy." He turned around and saw the petite bluenette. Her blue hair was down and wet, already in her sleep attire which consisted of a white crochet lace tee and shorts and underneath it a matching white bra and panties.

Levy now laid on both his stomach and chest, letting some of the shower water on her hair onto his chest as she continued in her cuddle like hug. "I'm guessing you're not in the mood to… do some foreplay, huh?"

Every now and then, Laxus and Levy would do some foreplay, arousing each other before initiating the actual sex part of the foreplay. Not right now however, seeing as the blonde detective was out of juice at the moment. "As much as I would love to do that, I'm beat."

"Not even a teeny bit?" She asked once more.

"We can make out." He meekly suggested.

"That's not particularly fun that much without the usual foreplay," she sat on his chest, her small stature body wasn't heavy at all for the detective. "I'm guessing the job fucks you better than I do, huh?"

A small chuckle escaped from the man's mouth. "Well when you put it like that, you make that sound like a bad thing."

"You make it sound like I don't please you, which makes me a bit insecure…" She looked away from him, crossing her arms around her chest, with a small tint of blush over her cheeks.

"Hey, you definitely please me, Levy," he raised himself a bit up with his arms underneath him. "Don't you ever think I want to make you feel insecure. You know that's not my nature to do so."

His words were slightly effective as she finally faced him again. "… I'm sorry."

"And I'm sorry too." He apologized back.

With his right harm, he pulled her back and embraced the bluenette, now just cuddling how they were. He placed his lips on her forehead, kissing her. "I love you, alright?"

Levy couldn't help herself but smile meekly at the man. She returned the kiss, this time, placing her lips onto his. "I love you too."

They simply laid on the couch, still in their embraced state.

Levy fell asleep first in his arms while Laxus tried his best not to doze off.

Just as he was about to surrender to his tiredness, suddenly both his and the bluenette's phones loudly rang atop the coffee table they sat on.

His ringtone played Shepard of Fire by Avenged Sevenfold while hers played Cold Blooded by the Pretty Reckless.

She was still asleep in his arms so Laxus tried his best placing her on the couch as he got off to answer his phone. "Yeah?" He answered without looking at the caller ID.

"Detective Laxus, there's been an accident that happened downtown." A grunt officer called him, informing him of the situation at hand.

"And? I just pulled an all-nighter and I just got home, can't you low ranking officers do it?" While that did sound a bit insensitive, he was just telling the truth. The man needs some rest for crying out loud.

"Well we would unless this didn't have your name all over it." The officer on the other line vaguely said.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" He raised his voice. He was already tired, might as well just waist the remaining energy he had by yelling through the phone.

"It's Natsu Dragneel's car, sir."

"And?" Laxus rolled his eyes. As if his name didn't appear all over the news, let alone in his work life. "Can't you handle a simple car accident?"

"We would've until one of our technicians found that his car's brakes have been tampered with."

"Huh…." He loudly sighed, placing and rubbing his neck with his right hand, still holding the phone to his ear with his left. The stress finally kicked in. "I'll… I'll be right down there."

"Just come to the precinct, we already moved the majority of the cars and their totaled pieces there already."

"Alright, thanks for that." He hung the phone up.

"Whooo waaas that?" Levy yawned as she stretched her body on the couch.

"That was an officer on the phone." Laxus went to his coat racket and wore his jacket once more.

"What happened?" Upon hearing that work called, Levy woke up from her small nap.

"Someone tried killing the presidential candidate again."

…

Upon his arrival to the Police Station, like deja-vu, the front of the station was filled with news reporters and journalists once again.

Laxus parked his car in his usual place but like last time, the news reporters and journalists saw him and immediately moved towards him to surround him. "Alright Levy, when we go out, I want you right behind me." He told her as he was about to get out of the driver's seat, awaiting to be bombarded by questions and flashing camera lights.

"O-okay." Levy said nervously. This was the first time she was surrounded by all of these men and women from different sources of media, which made her stomach a bit queasy.

Laxus nodded and soon got out. Right behind him was Levy.

She held his left hand with her right hand, griping and holding on to his arm with all her might as the two of them walked through the crowd.

"Is it true that presidential candidate, Natsu Dragneel, has been in a car accident?"

"No comment." Laxus placed his hand over his eyes, blocking the lights from hitting his eyes.

"I heard that someone was in the hospital, was that him?"

"Still no comment." Laxus continued to answer the media the same way he's always done.

"I heard that his brakes were tampered with, are you the leading detective on his case?"

He and Levy finally entered the building, leaving the crowd outside as they were. "Jesus Christ!"

"What's wrong?" Laxus turned his attention towards his girlfriend.

"I think someone touched my ass earlier." She patted behind her ass, hoping to take off the perverts imprint on it.

"You want me touch it?" He, with a straight face, asked. She simply scoffed at his request.

Before she can answer him, Jura was right behind Laxus. "Ahem," he coughed, getting the blonde detective's attention. "There's no fraternization in the Police Department, detective Laxus."

"Oh, chief, didn't see you there." Laxus said nervously, a sweat drop trickled down his cheek.

"Um, I'm going to go now," Levy let out a small wry laugh. "I have a car- cars to examine in the garage, see you!" The bluenette now left her lover to deal with their boss.

"I- uh- I got nothing." Laxus admitted.

"Okay enough of that pointless babble, we have a serious problem." Jura got right down to the case.

"I know about the tampered brakes, sir." Laxus tried to assure him.

"It's not just that," the two of them walked upstairs and into the chief's office. Jura sat down in his chair while Laxus sat across from him. "The FBI is coming down my neck on this."

"Are they nervous that they may have closed their "Dark Rose" case too soon?" It didn't surprise Laxus not one bit. He knew the case wasn't over nor did he think that it was the last time it was going to cross his mind about it.

"Yes, I want you to make sure that what's happening now is not in any way connected to that case." Jura asked of him.

"I have a gut feeling it is." Laxus told him.

"Well I don't like gut feelings," Jura said. "Now go find me that evidence to shut them up."

Laxus got up from his chair. "And what happens if I find evidence that does link it?" He hypothetically spoke.

"Then this becomes one major shit mess," He truthfully answered him. "Don't disappoint me."

"Alright, where is Mr. Dragneel?" Laxus needed a location on his whereabouts before heading off.

"In the ME's office." Jura answered him.

"Wait a minute, I thought no one died." Laxus raised an eyebrow.

"No one died, it's just him and his bodyguard didn't want to go to the hospital," Jura assured the detective. "So instead, the trio downstairs are examining them."

"Great, at least that saves me gas money to go out and see them at the nearest hospital." Laxus smirked. He left his boss's office and proceeded to go down in the first floor of the basement through the elevator.

After a few minutes of riding down the elevator, he made it into the ME's lab. "Hey, what's up Detective Laxus."

The pinkette greeted him as he walked into the room. He and Erza both sat next to each other. He also noticed that the trio weren't nowhere in sight.

Laxus saw that both him and Scarlet had bandages wrapped around their heads. "Uh, hi, where are the medical examiners?"

"The one called Evergreen went to the morgue, something about showing a family member his dead relatives or something," Erza told him their whereabouts. "The one called Freed went to the garage, gathering blood more blood samples from the cars." She continued. "And the one called Bickslow went to go get us something to eat."

"What brings you down here, detective?" Natsu asked.

"Well I came down here to ask some questions about your whereabouts throughout the day, if that's alright with you two?" Laxus took one of the chairs and sat right across from the two of them.

"Not at all, ask away." Natsu answered for the two of them.

"Okay," he took out his little notepad and pencil from within his jacket's inner pocket. "Let's start this morning, where were you two?"

"I was still home eating breakfast." Natsu answered.

"I was just arriving to his house in my car." Erza answered secondly.

"Afterwards?" He scribbled down their answers.

"We went to Magnolia's General Hospital." Natsu answered.

Laxus stopped scribbling on his little notepad upon hearing they had gone to the hospital beforehand. "Mind telling me what you were doing there?"

"He went to visit his father." Erza was the one to answer the question.

"He's… dying." Natsu gulped down some saliva, having trouble saying those very words.

"Oh," Laxus was rather shocked to hear this news. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine, his doctor today told me he didn't have much time left," Natsu sadly sighed as he explained. "He has stage four lung cancer. At the very least, he has less than 3 months left."

"I see," Laxus continued to write down the conversation. "And when you were coming back, was that then when you realized that your car's brakes didn't work anymore?"

"Yes," Erza answered. She was the one driving when the accident occurred. "As I was driving, I tried stopping the vehicle. However, each time I pressed on the brake, the car wouldn't even stop an inch." She recollected the calamity of events. "I tried to pull the emergency brake but I was too late, we crashed with the other vehicle at the intersection."

"And the brakes were working fine before you made it to the hospital?" He asked.

"Yes." She answered.

"Okay, so we have to assume that the brakes were tampered with while you two were visiting at the hospital." Laxus put his notepad away, now done with his questions.

"I would assume so, yes." Natsu agreed with the man's intuition.

"What time did you arrive there?" He asked one more question before leaving to investigate.

"Around 1:12 P.M.," Natsu looked at his wristwatch and back at the blonde detective. "And we left there around 6."

"So whoever did this had a 5 hour open window to do this," Laxus was now about to head out. "You guys can go home now, I'll have someone drive you two home."

"Thanks I appreciate that."

…

Thanks to the information received to him by Natsu and Erza, Laxus now headed towards Magnolia's General Hospital, along with a familiar golden blonde computer analyst, Hibiki. It wasn't far from the Station but needless to say, Laxus still drove. "Sooo… why do you need me?" Hibiki asked him as he stopped at a red light.

"You're going to find my suspect in the Hospital's cameras while I talk to the Hospital's staff." He answered him.

"You know, I could've done that from my computer." Hibiki meekly suggested to the detective.

"Just shut up and do what tell you to do," Laxus retorted. As easy as that sounded, he preferred to do things face to face, hands on. "Alright?"

"Alright, I guess." The golden blonde pouted, not bothering to complain any longer.

They finally arrived. Laxus entered the Hospital's parking space and, well, parked his car.

As the two got out of the car and made there way to the entrance, an old pinkette woman awaited and greeted them. "You must be detective Laxus I presume? We spoke on the phone earlier."

"Yeah," Laxus shook her right hand with his left while Hibiki only gave her a nod. "Porlyusica, right?"

"Yes," she shook right back with a firm grip. "I'm the Dean of Medicine here, you said that one of our security cameras might've caught your suspect in the act of tampering with Mr. Dragneel's brakes in his cars, correct?"

"Yes ma'am, he's here to check them whilst I question some of the people out here, hopefully they saw something if your cameras didn't." He explained their plan.

"That's fine, you should start with the construction workers over there," she glared past the two men and into the side of the hospital where the construction workers were. Apparently, they were adding a new gift shop. "And then speak with Brutus over there, he let's the people in and out of the parking lot."

"Thank you ma'am." And off Laxus went to start his investigation.

"And you can follow me, I'll show you to the camera room." As soon as she said that, the old doctor made her way into the hospital's main lobby whilst the golden blonde followed right behind her.

Making their way through doctors, patients and visitors alike, Porlyusica finally brought the analyst to the camera room. With her keys, she opened the door and let the man in first. "Here we are." The room itself was pretty dark but nonetheless the illuminating light from the screens was enough for the analyst to work with.

"Anyone else have access to this room?" Hibiki asked as made himself comfortable on the chair. It's warm, someone must've already been here.

"Are you implying that someone from our staff is your suspect?" A little hint of irritation was in her voice. She was rather appalled that the cop was assuming her or her staff were a part of whatever they were investigating.

"Not the question I asked," he retorted. "I only asked if there was anyone else besides you and security that have a key to this room, the seat was rather warm when I sat on it."

"I can see your point," she silently sighed. "It's me, the security guards and a few nurses." She told him. "The nurses come here to take a nap whenever they do double shifts."

"Mm, okay." He skimmed through the early recordings. He started from where Natsu and Erza arrived and made his way forward through the video afterwards.

"Anything else?" She asked, before departing and leaving him be with the room.

"No, that's about it," he responded, looking back at the stern old woman. "Thank you."

She left him be.

"Alright… what do we have here…" Hibiki said lowly to himself as soon as he saw something that caught his attention in the recordings. **3:12 P.M.,** that's where a strange man wandered his sights on the mobile.

The video was low quality, but with the right adjustments with the tools he had brought, the blurriness of the screen was now fixed and the analyst had a clear picture of the man's face, well more like the teenager's face. He cropped out everything but the man's face and sent it to Forensics. And with that, he took out his phone and dialed his partner.

Outside back at the parking lot, Laxus had interviewed everyone that Porlyusica had mentioned. And they all came back with similar stories: they didn't see anyone act suspicious or look out of place. He was at a dead end at his path.

"No one saw anything…" He jotted down the last few of his thoughts on his little notepad before putting it back in his inner pocket of his jacket. "Just great, I really hope Hi-" Midway through his sentence, his phone rang. _**Hibiki**_ , was the caller. "Speak of the Devil."

He answered. "You found something?"

"Yup, I got our guy in the act." Hibiki informed him.

"Nice fucking work." Laxus happily grinned at the sound of those words.

"Just sent the picture to Levy and her crew, hoping she can ID him." He told him through the phone.

"And hopefully soon." Laxus now hung up the phone.

Just as he was about to put his phone back in his back pants pocket, he received an email. A message from Levy. Either she texted him something erotic like she would do when she's missing him or she ID'ed his suspect. He was going with the latter.

He opened the message and just when he thought his grin couldn't get any bigger, it did. The man in the picture Hibiki sent was ID'ed as Rio Belevan. He was small time crook, fenced stolen items and was committed for battery assault. The message also contained his current address which was only 3 blocks from the Hospital.

He then called Hibiki. "Alright meet me at 3547 Baker Street."

"On it."

…

After several minutes, Laxus had arrived first at the apartment complex where his suspect lived. He awaited for Hibiki who was taking his sweet time getting there.

Getting rather impatient, just as he soon pulled out his phone, came coming around the corner the golden blonde analyst. "What the hell took you so long!?" Laxus forehead nerve popped out as he let his anger out.

"Sorry, sorry," Hibiki deeply apologize for his tardiness. "I just met this really cute nurse. And of course, I was inclined to give her my number just because of how pretty she was."

"And?" Laxus was only getting more irritated with each passive second within the conversation.

"Her name was Jenny!" He scratched his left cheek, smiling as he remembered her beautiful long blonde hair and that curvy body of hers. His daydream soon ended when the man could see Laxus killing glare. "Which is probably something you didn't need to know..."

"Obviously, now come on we have someone we need to talk to." Laxus now walked into the building, soon followed by Hibiki.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" A woman, standing right behind the main lobby's desk where the tenants checked in.

She had an eastern look to her: long, straight and glossy purple hair, reaching down to her lower back, while mostly left loose, being parted in the middle of her forehead and sporting two bangs framing her face and going down below her shoulders, the top part of her hair is also tied into a pair of bun-shaped Dango loops at both sides of her head, and a braid is present some inches below each of such loops. Her lips were colored with a shade or maroon lipstick while having blue eyeshadow. Her attire composed of a white buttoned up shirt, a short black dress and black high heeled boots.

Her features were strikingly mesmerizing for someone to be having this kind of job. "I need the room Rio Belevan is staying in." Laxus showed her his badge.

"Do you need his key as well?" She asked as she opened the drawer on her desk.

"Just in case, yes." Laxus answered.

"Here you go," she handed the detective the keys. "His room is on the 8th floor, number 6 to be precise."

"Thank you, ma'am, stay safe." Laxus now started to walk towards the elevator.

He then turned to look at Hibiki who couldn't stop staring at the woman at the desk, awestruck by her beauty. "Hey, come on now."

The golden blonde didn't respond. Without any other choice, Laxus pulled the analyst by the ear and dragged him to the elevator. "Sorry about that ma'am." He apologized for Hibiki's rude behavior just as the elevator doors closed.

"S-Sorry about that." Hibiki weakly laughed, massaging his left ear in which Laxus pulled.

"Whatever." Laxus didn't want to bother with the subject.

"It just felt like I've seen her somewhere before though." He rested his head over his hand, trying to remember if he did have a vague memory of seeing her.

"I really don't care, just want to get this over with." The elevator stopped at their destination.

They walked the halls of the building until they made it to room number 6 where Rio was. Laxus knocked the door hard. "Rio Belevan! This is Detective Laxus from MPD, open the damn door!" He announced himself.

After a couple of seconds, no respond came. "Rio Belevan!" He yelled his name once more, knocking on the door much harder than earlier.

"Don't come in!" He finally answered, just not the response both cops would want to hear.

"Open the door, now!" Laxus commanded.

"I… I can't!" The man now started to cry behind the door.

Left with no choice, Laxus signaled Hibiki to open the door whilst he readied his gun. And in a single swoop, the two entered his apartment only to find Rio strapped to a chair with a timed bomb. 10 seconds on it left.

"Oh god." Laxus lowered his gun.

"Her name was Minerva. She told me to do it."

In front of the building, coming out of the apartment complex, the woman from behind the desk now left with an evil smirk. She put on glasses and a dark jacket as disguise, walking and blending in with the crowd. And as she left, **BOOM!** The explosion was seen from outside the front of the building, engulfing the room with flames and smoke.

Windows were shattered and fell on unsuspecting people from below. And with that, the mass hysteria started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if I've been inactive here, I've usually posted the rest of the chapters on both Wattpad and Fanfiction.net. 
> 
> But yeah, finally managed to put the rest of the chapters here. As you know, Mirajane is dead and the new player in town is now Minerva.
> 
> Anyways, hope I'll update soon, see ya.


	14. Chapter 14

Everything was in disarray; the streets were filled with people running in panic, others stood in front of the building taking pictures of the apartment ablaze. More than a dozen civilians from the apartment complex ran out through the front door, crashing with other people and hurting each other in their frantic states.

Firefighters, police and EMTs arrived at the scene. The policemen tried to calm the people in the streets and securing the front of the pavement were the building stood. The firefighters just entered while the EMTs looked at potential victims from both the blast and when they hurt each other trying to get out.

Back inside the building, Laxus was the first regain his consciousness after the explosion. As he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling above him, falling to his back from the explosion. His vision was disoriented, his head was about to explode due to the painful migraine cause by the explosion, he couldn't hear anything and worst of all, he couldn't feel his left arm.

Well he could still feel it but a tingling and numbing sensation loomed over it each time he moved his fingers around. He could barely move his wrist. The worst was not being able to bent his arm as he tried to get up with it. With his right arm, he managed to get up, only to see the fire set ablaze inside the room. His only lead was now dead.

He looked to his side and saw Hibiki, curled up on his side. He crawled towards him with the little energy he had left.

The detective's eyes blurred more with each aching step as he dragged himself to his partner. He was going back to being unconscious with each breath he took as he inhaled more of the ash and smoke.

He finally made to him and saw that the analyst had taken most of the debris from the explosion, slowly bleeding out. Left with no other choice, Laxus had to get himself and Hibiki up and make it to the elevator.

With the support of his right arm, he finally managed to get himself off the floor he laid on. Still having some strength left, he lifted Hibiki onto his back and pushed himself toward the elevator. The explosion made him dizzy but it was not enough to incapacitate him.

Now in front of the elevator, he pressed the button, hoping the tight quartered moving room would come. He placed Hibiki on the side of the wall and sat with the blonde, waiting for the damn elevator.

Laxus held on to the remaining energy he had left. His eyes were twitching due to the smoke and the more he inhaled it, the more it made him less breathe. He was losing his consciousness and fast.

The elevator ding and to the detective's surprise, firefighters were in it. A few made their way to the room while two of them took them down to be checked on by the paramedics on the scene. As they went down, one of the firefighters gave Laxus his gas mask, finally giving the man fresh air in his lungs.

Finally bringing the two down, they took them to the paramedics. The firefighters placed the two of them down onto the gurney and the two were rushed right into the backs of 2 ambulances by the paramedics, riding in separate vehicles.

…

" _This is Channel 7 News, and we're live right now in front of the building in which…_ "

Laxus was brought to the ICU, only having minor injuries to his arm whereas Hibiki was taken down to the emergency surgery room. He finally regained some motion to his left arm and was given a thin cast over it, nonetheless, he still had to be careful with it.

The detective sat on the corner of his bed, where he listened to the TV, showcasing the event of the bombing that occurred. " _Is this the work of terrorist?_ " Said the blonde reporter on TV.

"Great…" Laxus facepalmed as he heard the woman utter those words. It was bad enough that their only suspect died before telling them anything concrete and now the media was instilling mass hysteria with their terrorist talk. "Just fucking great." He moved his palm to his lips, wiping the saliva as he embalmed his hand into a fist and taking it off his face.

A simple generic looking male doctor finally came back with the results in hand. "Detective Laxus."

"Oh hey doc, what's good?" Laxus turned to look at the doctor as he stood right beside the bed.

"Good news and bad news." He said as he opened the folder which contained some X-rays.

"Give me the bad news." Laxus rather hear the bad before the good.

"Well it isn't so bad to be honest," he placed the X-ray of the detective's arm on a white board. With a switch, a light radiated from behind, causing the bone part of the X-ray to light up. "As you see, the joint of the humerus was in a misplaced position, is the reason why you couldn't move your arm earlier after the explosion."

"And the good news?" Laxus now awaited for the good news, hoping it reassured him of the bad news.

"Good news is, we were able to move it back in place," he took off the X-ray picture and put up a new one after they've placed it back. "Every now and then, you would have trouble moving it but in 2 maybe 3 weeks, it should heal and you would be back in your physical peak."

"Heh, what about my friend? Any news on him?' He now wondered about his analytical friend, Hibiki. From what he had heard from earlier nurses and doctors, his golden haired friend was rushed into surgery.

"Your partner, Hibiki, sustained most of the damage," the doctor sighed as he told him the news. "He must've pushed you out of the way, hence the reason why he took most of the debris." He cocked and adjusted his glasses before continuing. "He sustained a lot of injuries to the chest and stomach areas and had 2nd and 3rd degree burns, the surgeons say he may have a low percentage of surviving the surgery…"

"That idiot…" Laxus could hardly remember the event. It happened so fast, but finally hit him, the golden blonde truly did push him out of the doorway in time before any real damage hit the detective. "Why… why!?" Laxus couldn't control his emotions. Anger and sadness had loomed over him, getting up from the side of the bed and walking around in a distraught state of mind.

"I'm sorry." The doctor patted the detective's back and walked over to another patient in the ICU.

Laxus now blamed himself for putting Hibiki in surgery. If he hadn't had act so rash back there at the apartment, maybe he would be in the ICU as well. He continued to pout over his guilt and the decisions he made leading up to the explosion.

"Oh my god, you're okay!" Suddenly, a familiar petite bluenette hugged the detective from behind.

"Easy there Levy, my left arm was only hurt." He turned around and hugged her back.

"Thank god," she let go of him. "I heard Hibiki was rushed into surgery, is he okay?" She knew the golden blonde. Every now and then, she would help the man with his computer forensics.

"The doctor came by and told me he only had a slim chance of… surviving…" He gulped down some saliva, having trouble saying those words.

"Oh no," Levy gasped, placing both her hands over her mouth. "He's… he's…" She tried to say something positive but her stream of tears won over her.

Laxus brought her closer, hugging her and placing her head to her chest where she poured her tears on. "He's going to make it, I know it, he's someone who wouldn't give up so easily." He comforted her.

"Laxus!" The medical examiner trio came to visit him as well, standing right behind them was the Chief police, Jura.

"Freed, Evergreen, Bickslow, boss," he saw the four of them walk towards him and Levy. "Hey."

"We heard what happened and we rushed here as soon as possible." Evergreen was the first to make it to their position.

"Are you alright?" Freed asked as he and Bickslow were the second and third to make it to their position.

"Yeah, just have sprained arm." He answered. He let go of Levy who stopped her sobbing.

"What about Hibiki?" Bickslow asked.

"He's in surgery," he told them. "Doctors say he may have only a slim chance of survival."

"Oh god, that sounds horrible." Evergreen gasped, Freed's eyes widened and Bickslow looked at his feet, not wanting to show his grief.

"Laxus." Jura called out to him. He gestured his finger for him to come towards him, implying he wanted to talk privately with him.

Laxus went towards him, leaving the four of them to converse about the current situation. "I saw the news, I could only imagine the press knocking at your door and asking for questions that we still don't have answers to."

"Yeah," Jura sighed. The situation at hand was getting worse by the second. "Not only them, but Homeland Security called, they want us to find out if this was some sort of terrorist attack. And they want an answer as soon as possible."

"Well I have good news and bad news." Laxus told him.

"Good news first." All day long, Jura had seen and heard mostly bad news so for once throughout the day did he once want to hear good news.

"Before our lead was, well burnt to a crisp, he gave us a name." He told him.

"That's great!" Jura was somewhat at ease to have find out that the lead didn't fully die without cooperating. "So what's the bad news?"

"He… didn't give me a full name, only a first name." Laxus sighed as he told him.

"Well, a name is a name, whether it'd be an alias or not, it's still better than nothing," Jura assured the detective. "I want you to go with Levy and see if any of the databases have a match with that name."

"Okay sir, but what about… Hibiki?" As much as he wanted to go back and finish the job, Laxus couldn't leave the man behind that saved him.

"I'll have 2 men stationed here if they hear anything, I need the trio to positively identify our bomber." Jura said as he looked into the direction of his employees.

"Alright."

…

Back at the Precinct, Laxus was in the Forensics lab. While he and his girlfriend tried to find someone by the name of _Minerva_ , Jet and Droy were processing the rest of the evidence from the crime scene at the lab.

"Anything in our database?" Laxus asked as Levy typed in her computer.

"Nope, nada." She said as the name was never brought up in the local database.

"How about FBI?" He suggested as he as well looked at her computer monitor.

"Hmm okay," she went on the FBI criminal database. 5 minutes passed and it came up empty as well. "Nope, same result as before."

"Try…" He tried to think of something. "Try… Interpol."

"Interpol? Alright I guess." If this was some kind of terrorist attack, Interpol might have their suspect in the database.

Not even five minutes and they got 3 hits. "Alright, I got three hits," she stated the obvious. "You want to see them?"

"Yeah, maybe the hospital camera may have captured her as well without us noticing." Laxus said as he continued to look at the monitor.

"Okay, first one we got is Minerva Orla-" She was quickly cut off as she showed the picture to Laxus. An brown colored woman with blue colored mascara and blue lipstick, with tied up bun hairs and loose hair behind it.

"No fucking way!" His pupils widened as he can recognize the woman.

"You know her?" She looked at Laxus. From his expression, she could see that her boyfriend instantly knew her from somewhere.

"She was in the main lobby!" He remembered her from the apartment complex. It was the same woman who gave them the key to the suspect's apartment room. The same woman who looked innocent in a way any woman would give based on just appearance. "She was the one who gave us the key and told us where the man's apartment was."

"Did she want to see her own handiwork in action?" Levy asked while she continued to read the woman's file.

"Maybe, crazy bitch!" He couldn't believe that he and Hibiki were played from the moment the two entered the building.

"It says here that she's more of a hitman than anything, killing her intended target with measurable amounts of collateral damage." She read from the monitor as she scrolled down.

"You think someone hired her to kill Natsu?" He asked her input.

"Maybe, if that were true, wouldn't she had blown up his car instead making someone else tamper with it?" Levy asked.

"She could've, but she didn't," Laxus reached for his phone. "I got to tell-"

He was immediately cut off by his phone ringing. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was blocked. Rather nervous, he answered nonetheless after the third ring. "Hello? This is Detective Laxus Dreyar from Magnolia Police Department."

"Oh, I know who you are, Detective." A woman's voice was heard. Could it have been Minerva calling him?

"Who is this?" He asked. His tone had a bit of nervousness but still, did he manage to hide it.

"Oh you know who this is, you're looking right at my Interpol file." And there, she confirmed herself to be Minerva.

With silent gestures with his hands, Laxus told Levy to start a trace for her phone's location. "Minerva, isn't it?"

"Yes," she truthfully answered. "You're probably wondering why I'm calling, aren't you, detective?"

"That and many other questions beside that," he continued to cautiously converse with her. "You almost killed me and my partner back there, why?"

"You're alive aren't you? Not so much about your friend though, is it?" She added a laugh at the end of her sentence.

Laxus tried to control his anger. "That doesn't answer my question."

"Oh I know, but that's not what I'm calling you for." She said. He could hear her footsteps, but where was she walking to?

"Then why are you calling me for?" Laxus asked, hoping this wasn't a wasteful conversation.

"I just called to reassure you that my target is not Natsu Dragneel, the dear ol' presidential candidate." She said. He couldn't hear her walking anymore.

"Then why target his car?" He asked. It didn't make sense to him, if not the pinkette then who was her intended target?

"I just needed him to get your attention." She revealed.

"Well, you got my fucking attention alright." He told her, cursing as well.

"You are a fascinating detective, aren't you?" She could only laugh. He could only imagine an evil smirk across her face.

"I don't know what you mean by that." Is she playing a game with him specifically? He had to wonder why she did all of this just for his undivided attention.

"Well, I don't have much time to explain myself," she told him. "You're going to have to wait." She continued. "And don't bother tracing this call, by the time you sent a patrol to get here, I'll be long gone." And she hung the phone up.

Laxus looked at his phone. He hung up as well. "Anything?" He turned to look at Levy.

"The call wasn't long enough, sorry." She told him unfortunately.

And in a fit of rage, Laxus threw his phone across the room and into a wall where it shattered, scattering the battery, it's case, the phone itself, and both memory and Sim card. His action startled the two other forensic specialist in the room.

…

Tonight was finally the night, Erza knew what she had to do. After leaving Natsu's home, she inadvertently snuck right back in, this time in her assassin gear.

Cautiously walking through his home, she knew where to go through the darkness of his home.

She only had 2 days before her deadline. And what was currently going on in the news made it a perfect cover for her to do something before anyone can discover what had happened before it's too late.

She finally made to his room, slowly opening his door. Erza now stood right in front of the bed where pinkette laid. **Okay Erza,** she mentally thought to herself. **You've waited long enough, it's finally time to do the inevitable.**

She silently glided her feet on the right side of the bed. She saw the man in his deep sleep, snoring through the night. "Zzzzzz…"

She took out her Sai and placed her both her hands on it. She hovered the Sai over Natsu's body, pointing it right above his head. **Why am I sweating?** She could feel unusually warmer, nervously sweating accompanied by a faster heartbeat. **Stop this Erza, you could do this…**

She glanced right over at him once more. The moon's light was enough for her to see Natsu's facial features once more before killing him. She could see the bandages on his head from the car accident that had happened earlier.

Her palms continued to sweat. **Keep calm...** She continued to mentally talk to herself. **Why am I this nervous? This isn't the first time I've killed…** She tried to reassure herself even then though, it didn't help her constant sweating and increasing heart rate.

She slowly breathed in and out, calming herself down. It was either now or never, and she chose now.

Erza quipped herself, adjusting the grip of the Sai in her hands. She held the Sai above the man's head as far above she can put it and with her body, brought down as fast as she could.

**Why….** Everything slowed down. **Why…!?** She closed her eyes. **WHY!?** And without knowing, her own body stopped. She looked over at Natsu and saw that the Sai's sharp edge was near his forehead, stopping there.

For the first time in her life, she hesitated. **I… I can't do this…** Her arms shook as she brought the Sai back to her. **Of all people… why did it have to be with him that I have to hesitate with…?**

She stood there, watching Natsu sleep soundly through the night. **Mirajane was right… I can't do this…**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So, what surprised you guys the most? Minerva's unexpected call to Laxus? Or Erza hesitating for the first time? Leave it in your reviews, if you will please.
> 
> Also, hope you liked this chapter. Will be updating soon. So see you next time.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Woohoo, can't believe we're already on chapter 15! Feels like just yesterday we made it to chapter 10 lol.
> 
> I just want to thank everybody that has liked and supported this AU Fairy Tail Fanfic so far, I've appreciate it so much. And no, this story isn't even close to being done and it's not a reason why I'm celebrating this achievement. I just really appreciate that there a lot of people who take their time and read my stuff ^_^
> 
> Anyways, enough of my nonsense and let's get back to the story now, shall we?

The scarlet assassin stood there in the corner of the pinkette's bedroom, watching him sleep in the dark. She couldn't bring herself to kill him and that was enough to take a toll on her.

Erza knew sooner or later that she had to get out of the room before morning arose, but she still couldn't believe that this was the first time, in a long time, that she had hesitated.

The memory of her stopping in her tracks while trying to kill the man was playing in a loop in her mind; the Sai coming down on him but her own body halted before it even pierced the pinkette in anyway. She clenched her hand into a fist, mad at him, mad at herself.

What Mirajane told her back at the ship, was it becoming a reality? Had she develop some type of feeling towards her target? Become sympathetic for him? She was an assassin. The questions that had bombarded her mind had baffled her, appalled her in ways she's never felt. She didn't know what to feel and in what manner.

**Dammit…** She silently sighed, staring at the pinkette as he snored. **Why did this have to happen…And of all people, with him?** She continued to conflict herself with her sudden morality change, fighting an internal war with herself.

Her eyes traced off to other things in the man's room yet most of the time, her eyes were on him. Had she truly had a change of heart? **What am I going to do? If I don't do this… Jellal would send him to take care of the problem…**

She could still remember the phone call. If she wasn't able to kill the presidential candidate before the deadline, Jellal would send Dobengal to finish what she couldn't do. And she couldn't let him do that.

Then again, after a while, she has had concerns over the man. With the weird dreams and flashbacks of repressed memories she's somehow had forgotten, she had questions. Questions that would put her or him at a distrusting position. And that's something she doesn't quite need right now considering the things she already has at hand.

She sighed once more. She had little to almost no options now. And time was not on her side.

She quipped the Sai once more, hoping her hesitation had worn off. Erza silently made her way to the bedside, now observing Natsu closer. **It's… now or never…** She breathed in and out slowly. Nervousness had struck her again.

Her hands shook as she extended them over the man's head, readying her Sai.

She stopped and brought her Sai and hands back towards her. **Fuck!** She mentally cursed at her cowardice.

**Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!** She mentally slapped herself. At this point, she knew now she couldn't do it, much less even give him a scratch or any kind of inflicting pain.

She stared back at him, this time focusing her attention on his facial features with the moonlight. While she looked at him, she remembered the words his father told her. _**You acknowledge that there are some feelings there yet, you know that somewhere in your brain, that it's only going to hurt you…**_ His words were much like Mirajane's.

Maybe the two were right. Maybe she did harbor some feelings for him. Maybe she knew the consequences of falling in love with a target. But somehow, she still managed to do the unexpected, under all the things that had happened in the last few weeks.

He was charming, had a weird but funny sense of humor, he deeply cared for the people, and most of all, he treated her with respect. Something most of the men she's killed had nothing in common or even remotely the same traits as him. And it was something she had to admire about.

**Do I honestly feel like this? About him?** She didn't take her eyes off of him, much less not think about him in the last few minutes she's been in his room. The reoccurring memories of their moments had been an eventful trip in her mind. Their small but elegant dance moment, how she had saved him from Mirajane and how he's saved her from death, even small moments when she would simply just stare at the man while he takes the stage or their little lunch breaks and whatnot. These moments, small yet sentimental, were great. She couldn't help but bring a smile in those events.

**Maybe me taking this target…. Maybe me meeting him… falling in… love with him… maybe it was fate? Destiny?** Her heartbeat faster. She would've never expected to find love in her line of work, much less it being someone she had to kill. Then again, she would've never question the little faith she had in destiny. How it determined one's life and the choices they made.

One thing on her mind that was really bugging her was if she did have those harbored feelings for him. **Maybe… just maybe…** She put away her Sai and leaned in towards Natsu. Closer and closer, her face was only mere inches away from his.

She could feel the hot and minty scent of his breath, now only mere centimeters away. She moved away her long hair, hoping it didn't tickle the man. She had more options than this, but this one was the more direct approach and the one that can give her the answer she needed for the lingered question in her head.

Just like back at the ship, she felt that small flame become reignited. And that one hole she buried herself in, fill once again as she neared her lips to his. Her heartbeat continued to beat fast. But just like how she was trying to kill him, she became hesitant and pulled herself away from him. **Shit…**

She couldn't have a definitive answer to her feelings much less have an intent on killing him. She just surrendered and left him be.

…

That same morning, Natsu awoke from his sleep as his alarm clock on both his phone and digital clock on the bedside counter rang simultaneously. He turned them off, having only the birds chirping as a sound.

As usual, he did his morning routine. He would go into the bathroom, shower, quickly change to much better and comfortable clothing, wash his teeth and after all that, head downstairs to the kitchen where he prepared his morning breakfast.

"Okay, let's see what I have today…" He looked at his calendar that hanged on the refrigerator with a magnet. "Huh, look at that, I have nothing for today."

With such a busy schedule he had, he didn't expect himself to have some sort of free day. "Sweet." He smiled profoundly, finally having some kind of rest after all the things he's done and the things he's been through.

He poured his cereal and right after, he poured his milk. He munched through his Cocoa Puffs while reading the daily newspaper. "Wonder what kind of small comic strips they have today…" He extended the newspaper over his breakfast and in front of him, being able to see all sorts of news.

From an explosion that happened downtown to ads from pizza restaurants, he saw the car accident that he was involved in on page 13. "Well, guess I should've expected this."

He continued to turn the pages until he made it far back in the newspaper where all the crossword puzzles were. Surprisingly, no small comic strips from either Garfield or the usual cartoony stuff would be at to read. "Aw, that sucks." He pouted while he chewed his cereal.

He now turned to the second and third last few pages, where they put pictures of missing people. From children to elderly people, there were many that still have never been found. One in particular had caught his attention. " **Erza Scarlet, missing child since 1996…** " He read out loud. "What the hell!?"

He dropped the newspaper on the table, shocked to have seen the very bodyguard that protected him on the list of missing people. Just be sure, he read it once more, this time in full detail. " **Erza Scarlet, missing child since 1996,** " he paused at the same spot when he threw the newspaper on the table. He continued. " **She has red vivid hair and dark brown eyes. The last place seen was in a car wreck where her parents died on Highway 17. Authorities believe she survived when only her body was the only nowhere to be seen in the wreck. If you have any information, please contact…** " And that's where he stopped reading out loud.

"Holy shit!" Natsu still couldn't believe and process the information he had just read. "Does she know she's missing?" The pinkette had to wonder if the scarlet haired woman knew.

The woman has been missing since 1996. Exactly 2 decades that no one has reported her to be alive, or at the very least been found.

Many questions soared through his head, figuring out what to do. "Okay, maybe if she doesn't know, I should show her this…" He spoke his mind out loud, walking back and forth in front of his kitchen table. "Or maybe she does know… but she's hiding? Gah! What am I supposed to do!?"

Suddenly his doorbell rang. "What now!?" Already having much on his platter, he put away the newspaper and put the bowl with small amounts of Cocoa Puffs and milk in the sink.

He now walked towards the front door and opened it. "Hey." Speak of the devil, Erza was the one on his doorstep, in civilian clothing instead of her body armor.

"Oh hey, didn't expect you here 'til the afternoon," Natsu looked at his wristwatch and back at Erza. "Come on in."

"Thanks," with that, she slowly walked inside his home and into the living room where she sat down on the couch. He locked the door and took a seat next to her. "So where are we going today? Another meeting?"

"Actually, I have the day off, I'm guessing you do too now." He told her.

"Really?" Erza didn't quite expect that. Must've been all the stuff like the shootings and other meetings that must've made it seem so busy every now and then. Still, she was rather accustomed to the unexpected now.

"Yeah, really…" He looked into the direction where his kitchen was, rather nervously. His constant switch from looking at Erza and back into the kitchen was making him look more suspicious by the minute.

"You okay?" She asked while his gaze was back at her.

"Hmm," from how he responded, he wasn't paying much attention to her. "Oh sorry, yeah, I'm great as a grape."

"Are you sure?" She now was nervous herself. Had he figured out she almost tried to kill him? **No… he couldn't have known… he was sleeping…**

"…" He didn't answer. With his sudden silence and the questions she asked him, the two were rather nervous at each other.

One knew something about her past while the other was being targeted. This itself had made them worried.

"Okay, you want know what's bothering me?" Natsu suddenly said, sighing in surrender.

"It's okay if you don't want to." Part of Erza wanted to know, but another part of her did not. She gulped down on her saliva, hoping her on my cover was blown.

"Follow me," he got up from his seated position and went into the kitchen, Erza followed right behind. Inside a cabinet, he took out where he hid the newspaper and placed it on the table. He turned to the very page and showed her what worried him. "Look right here."

Erza's eyes widened as she the picture of her small child self on the missing person's list in the newspaper. "What!?" She brought the newspaper closer to herself.

Based on her initial response and sudden action, Natsu had to assume she had no prior knowledge of this. "… I'm guessing you didn't know?"

"No," he worries about her cover being blown away soon went down the drain, but now a piece of her past had somehow filled that void. She continued to read. "My parents… died?" Just like in her dream.

"It… seems so…" Natsu tried his best to answer, considering that's what the newspaper information gave them.

"This… this is just a lot to take in all of a sudden…" Erza sat down on the kitchen chair. Like Natsu, she had trouble taking in that amount of information, especially that of her own.

The suppressed memories, the sudden flashbacks, faint pictures of her mother and father in her mind, it finally had some sort of answer. And all this time, the only thing she ever knew was that Jellal had adopted her, telling her that her own family never wanted her, but this sole evidence was the thing that proved all the lies he's spewed at her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Natsu placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her as best as she could.

"Yeah, it's just wow." She was shocked but somehow relived because of the information.

"I know, it had me that same way when I read it earlier." He told her, feeling empathetic with her.

"Do you know where Caelum Town is?" While she may have traveled many places, that place itself did not ring any bells in her mouth nor her head. "I know the country, but the town? I don't believe they have a town named after itself."

"Yeah, it's just a few cities down south near the trading ports," he told her. "The place wasn't established until 2005 where Caelum gave the port town to Fiore when both countries signed a peace treaty. It was initially called Gios Town."

"Now that I've heard off." She knew Gios Town but never have there been any contracts there nor has she visited it.

"You're going to see what the fuzz is about that picture of yours?" He asked as she got off the chair and headed into the living room.

"Yeah, thank you for the information." She headed towards the front door.

"You… don't want anyone to come… with you?" He asked her. Now that was a question Erza did not expect to hear from the man.

She turned to look at the pinkette. "…" She didn't know how to respond to him, only gazing at the pinkette.

"I mean… this is a lot of to take in, I would think that you would want somebody to accompany you…" Natsu said, massaging the side of his neck while looking around frantically in the room go avoid eye contact.

"… y-you're right…" Erza leaned her back onto the door. This sudden information about her past, it opened many doors to Erza, specifically that of her parents. But, even then, having that much information was too much of a burden to hold it herself. "But I have no one else…"

"You have me." Natsu offered his company.

Though their only relationship they had was just purely bodyguard and VIP of a sort, their relationship as friends was seemingly growing, even if it was mostly a ruse on Erza's side.

"If you go though, you're going to miss your interview tomorrow on The Morning Show with Chad," she warned him about the consequences for the actions he was about to do. "A-Are you sure?" Though she was right, she was also worried that the man she was supposed to kill was helping her on her quest to figure out her past.

"If it means helping a friend, then yeah I would," he told her, smiling at her. "Besides, I can just reschedule another time."

Though she should be opposing this idea, she couldn't help but bring a smile of her own in this situation. "Okay," she accepted his company. "We should go now."

"It's going to be a long drive, so you're probably right about that."

…

On that same morning, instead of going to the Precinct, Laxus had another place in mind to go.

While driving around the city go get to his destination, it made him think about all the shit he's been through. From a terrorist _slash_ assassin who's purpose he hasn't figured out yet to almost getting blown up and killed, makes a person think and reevaluate one's self.

The car came to a stop at the red light.

Many things came to his mind. Feeling almost responsible for putting a friend in the hospital to just downright having a shitty mood, Laxus just seemed to think about that certain thing.

What if it was him? How would everyone react to that? Levy would most likely be devastated, the trio would probably try to honor him in some way, his father… well, he and his father didn't get along that well, considering he had thrown him in jail for a bank robbery he committed… let's just say, he wouldn't grieve any time for his own son. The last person on his mind was his grandfather, Makarov, once the mayor of Magnolia. The man was more of a father to him than his own father and thank god, he was grateful for that.

The traffic light turned green and he stepped on the pedal once more to continue to drive.

There have been many times in his line of duty where he had come close to death, but this was the first that made him think about his future, his career.

He thought about all the good times and all the bad times of his life. From being abused by his father to being saved and welcomed by his grandfather, from meeting the love of his life to becoming a cop, this was all he ever dreamed of. But what about everything else he wanted to accomplish? There was more that life had to offer for him.

He finally made it to his destination, a jewelry store. Like most jewelry stores, the store had a generic name, nothing to noteworthy about it. He parked his car right in front of it.

Though the name was not noteworthy, the store itself brought back some memories. It was the first day of his job on the force where he and a partner from long ago stopped a jewelry heist at this very store. He did a good job and so did his friend. It was a long time ago, but he can still remember that anecdote like yesterday.

He got out of the car and walked onto the pavement and into the store. "Oh, hey Detective Laxus." An old man greeted him.

"Hey, Gecko." A nickname he had given to the old man. Laxus walked right towards the counter where the rings were.

"Are you finally going to buy something? Or are you just going to look like last time?" Laxus had been here several times. And most of the time, he never bought anything from the store.

Laxus looked around at the inventory. From small diamond rings to emerald rings, the store had many varieties. "I've finally thought about it."

"And?" The old man awaited a response.

"I think, I finally am." Laxus said. He put his hand over the counter, pointing at a specific ring he had interest for awhile.

"That one?" The old man looked at the ring. It was a diamond ring, medium sized on a golden band. Around it, were small rubies and emeralds. It was beautiful and most certainly would it look good as an engagement ring.

"Yeah." Laxus affirmed him.

The old man took out the ring, showing Laxus the ring at a much closer distance. "It's at least $34,000."

"I know that, and I've said that much." Laxus took out his wallet and then his credit card from one of it's sockets.

The man placed the ring inside a small and smooth box, now giving it to Laxus while he handed his card. He opened it, admiring the beauty in his hand while the old man was behind the cash register.

"And we're all set." The man gave Laxus his credit card back.

"Thanks." He put the small box in his inner jacket pocket and put away his credit card.

"So, all the times you've visited, I never asked you, who's the lucky woman?" The old man was intrigued by the detective's love life. He never once brought up his girl's name much less bring her here to see the rings.

"Ah, just someone I've loved for a very long time, I think she finally deserves this." And like that, Laxus walked out of the store and back into his car.

Just as he sat down his phone rang. He took it out of his front inner jacket pocket and looked at the caller ID, **Chief Jura** , it read. "Hello?"

"Where are you Laxus?" He heard from his phone.

"I was just finally going to the Precinct, why?" He truthfully told him.

"Just barely? Where'd you go?" He continued to question Laxus.

"I just took a detour, that's all." He assured him of that.

"Well get your ass here as soon as possible, alright?" He instructed.

"Okay, then." His boss hung up and now Laxus did too. He looked at his phone briefly, wondering what that was all about.

He put his phone away and now headed back to the precinct.

After several minutes, he reached the Precinct and parked his car. He hauled ass and got out of his car and made it inside, quickly without wasting time.

"Laxus!" The chief yelled his name from the second floor as soon as he saw the blonde enter the building.

Laxus looked up and headed upstairs. "What's up?" He asked him.

"Come on." Jura headed into his office, followed by Laxus.

As they entered, he saw a familiar face, FBI Agent Gildarts Clive was in the office and so was 2 more female guests. "Hey, I thought I seen the last of your ugly face." Laxus greeted the red haired man.

"Haha, same here." Gildarts shook his hand.

"And you two are?" Laxus asked.

"These two women are from Interpol," Jura took a seat in his chair. "Her name is Meredy." He introduced the pinkette first. "And her name is Ultear."

"Hello." Meredy cheerfully greeted the blonde.

"Hi." He greeted back at her.

"Hello there." Ultear had a more serious tone to her voice.

"Nice to meet your acquaintance." Laxus greeted her as well.

"And this is my best detective, Laxus Dreyar." Jura properly introduced this.

"I'm guessing they want jurisdiction on this case correct?" Laxus assumed much. The only thing that didn't make sense was the presence of Gildarts.

"Indeed we do, but unfortunately, the DA told us to play nicely and have an inter-agency case instead." Ultear answered. Though she didn't seem pleased with the idea, she had to go with it in order to be on the case to say the very least.

"I get why you two would be here but I don't understand why he's here." He looked at Gildarts, he seemingly poked his nose.

"I'm here to just oversee the case, in case the two of y'all don't get along." Gildarts revealed, stretching his arms above his head now.

"And I suppose, once we're done here, we're supposed to give you Minerva, huh?" Laxus asked Ultear, who seemed to be the one in charge from the two agents from Interpol.

"Yes, she has valuable information that will be useful to us," Ultear responded. From the sound of his voice, she could sense he didn't like that idea very much. "Why are you asking?"

"Because that bitch almost killed me, put my friend in the hospital and called me on my cell and acted like nothing happened." Laxus crossed his arms on his chest.

"Wait, she called you?" Meredy stepped into the conversation.

"Yeah, apparently she had other plans than what we had initially thought." Laxus answered.

"If she called you then she's most likely interested in you," Ultear put her hand under her chin. "This is bad."

"Why is that? Is he endangered?" Jura asked.

"Minerva doesn't usually do this but when she does," Ultear paused for a second before continuing. "She becomes infatuated with a man she feels is worthy for her."

"And what does she do of the man doesn't like her back the same way she does?" Gildarts asked.

"She would start hurting, even killing the most important people in the man's life, desperately trying to get his attention no matter what." She told them.

"Oh well fuck me side ways then." Laxus facepalmed. It was bad enough the woman wanted his attention, but now knowing that Minerva likes him puts him in a bad situation.

"Uh, sir?" A grunt officer slightly opened the door to Jura's office.

"Hey, can't you wait? We're having an important meeting." Jura told the officer.

"But the guy says he's from the CIA, says he needs to talk to you guys." He told them.

"What!?" Ultear, Meredy, Laxus, Gildarts, they all said in unison.

"Let him in then." Unlike the rest of the people in the room, Jura wasn't as surprised as them.

The door opened, a man in suit entered the room. He had long dark hair and had his hands behind his back. Typical inferiority complex the CIA showed. "Hello, my name is Mard Geer, and I'm from the CIA." He smirked.

"From what I heard, you have some information for us?" Jura got right down to business. With the CIA, they are always hiding something and usually not great ones.

"Down to business I see?" He looked around the room. He saw the faces the other people assigned to this case gave him. Not welcoming ones that for sure. "I'm here because Minerva is actually one of our spies."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: And cliffhanger.
> 
> Okay, I should stop doing that but I don't know, I just like ending some of my chapters in cliffhangers.
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Will be updating soon.


	16. Chapter 16

"No fuckingway." Out of all the things he's heard in his life time, Laxus, along with Interpol Agents and FBI Agent Gildarts, were baffled to hear what the so called CIA agent, Mard Geer, had revealed to them.

"A spy?" Ultear, the senior agent from Interpol had gotten up from her seated position and stomping furiously as she walked towards the CIA Agent. She then held the man from his collar, prompting the surrounding the people in the room to go towards them. "DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE SHE'S KILLED AND INJURED!? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY OF THOSE WERE KIDS!?" She yelled at the man, carrying him still.

"Ultear!" Meredy, the junior Interpol agent, along with FBI agent Gildarts try to pry of Ultear from Mars Geer.

"I'm fully aware of the actions she's done, I don't have to be reminded of them," Calm as ever, even as he was held in the most threatening position by the Interpol agent. "At the time, we knew what she was capable of but what we didn't know was that she had gone rogue, that she had done all of those tragic things."

Finally prying her hands off, Mard Geer was let go and Gildarts and Meredy now restrained her from lashing at her. "You son of bitch!" Ultear cursed at him, trying to loosen the grip the two agents held on her.

Laxus and Chief Jura could only stare at the primitive actions the two were doing in his office. "When you say rogue, does that mean she's no longer affiliated with you guys?" Laxus asked.

"Correct detective," Mard Geer fixed his tie. Ultear had undid it while she was holding him by the collar. "And since she was part of our Agency, she is our mess to clean."

"Oh no, she does not get off the hook that easy!" Ultear finally calmed down, but it didn't stop Gildarts and Meredy to continue to restrain her. "She's wanted for killing the Ambassador of Bellum, one of the Senators from Caelum and many charges for her inhumane actions. She's Interpol's bitch to catch."

"Now wait a minute, none of you have jurisdiction here," Jura stood up from his chair across from them. "Ms. Milkovich, you are fully aware that we still hold jurisdiction here, so far you and your associate are only consultants to our case." He looked at her and then back at Geer. "And Mr. Geer, while I thank you for the information you've given us, this isn't any of your concern anymore."

"But I'm not done yet," Mard smirked. "Minerva, like I said was our spy. She was in a secret organization of Assassins that she had infiltrated while she was still with us."

"And what does that have to do with our case?" Laxus crossed his arms around his chest. He was already familiar with an assassin he had come across over the last 2 months.

"That same organization was the one that sent that pretty little blonde assassin of yours in the morgue to kill Natsu Dragneel." Mard placed his hands behind him, giving the group a smirk as he told them.

"You mean to tell me that Mirajane Strauss was an associate to Minerva?" Gildarts asked. He and Laxus were the ones to had finally had some closure to that case. But somewhere, he knew that he wasn't done so easily with it.

"Both are associates to that organization," Mard corrected him. "But yes, they were very much associates as well." He continued. "For years before she had gone rogue, she was feeding us information about it's members. But all we ever wanted was the information of the ring leader, the one who pulls all the strings."

"And that's why you want her?" Jura asked.

"For the most part, yes," Geer answered. "But also to make sure she doesn't spill the beans of our operations around Earthland."

"Typical." Gildarts rolled his eyes. The CIA, always treading carefully with discretion.

"How about this, we, and I mean Detective Laxus, Agents Gildarts, Ultear and Meredy capture Minerva," Jura now devised a plan. "She's then sent to our Precinct then a FBI holding facility, there is where you can speak to her and afterwards, she can go with Interpol."

"That sounds good." Mard agreed with the sudden proposition.

"No, he would kill her before we even get the chance to get her." Ultear was opposed. She knew how the CIA operated, and killing a rogue CIA agent was one of their styles.

"I will not," Mard told her. "I will assure you, Miss Milkovich, that I or the CIA would not kill the person for interest, hell, I will pinky promise that."

"Uh no, I will not do that," she seemed rather disgusted at the pinky promise comment he made. "But if you so much as kill her, I will have bark up that tree of yours and the CIA."

"As wish then," Mard told her. "Well I should get going now, my presence would only bring you more of the media here." He soon walked towards the door.

"Well, I thank you for the information you've brought us." Jura got out from behind his desk and walked towards the man, giving him a handshake be for he left.

"Aye, aye then," just as he was about to walk out, he looked at Laxus. "Tread carefully now, Detective, I hear you are in her sight." He left now, leaving the group be.

"Well that was-"

"Intriguing." Ultear finished Gildarts sentence.

"Yes, that was a lot to take in." Jura walked back behind his desk again. The four of them turned back to look at him, now seating where he once was when the conversation began.

"…" Laxus couldn't help but to think of the words Ultear said to him, how Minerva would do much to get the attention of the man she was interested in. How far would she really go?

"Hey, you okay Laxus?" Gildarts placed his left hand over the blonde's right shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Huh? Oh yeah." He got back from his mind, now back to reality as he should be.

"Detective Laxus, do you have anyone that you might want with protective services?" Meredy had asked him. If Minerva's sights were set on the blonde detective, they would want to do as much as possible to protect the people he's close with.

"A few," Laxus answered. "I'll… I'll write a list for you."

"Alright then." Meredy said.

"Okay, I need to speak with my detective alone here now, if you want you can set up in one of the empty offices we have downstairs, if you will." Jura told them.

The Interpol agents and FBI agent Gildarts soon left, leaving the two alone in the room now.

"What do you want to talk about sir?" Laxus asked. He knew something was up if he wanted him to be alone here now.

"Where were you this morning?" Jura asked.

"Well that's more of a personal matter." Laxus refused to answer. He wasn't about to tell him that he had finally got the engagement ring for his girlfriend, Levy, the forensic scientist.

"Are you sure? Minerva didn't try to contact you in any way again?" He asked once more and with another question, this time about Minerva.

"If you must know," Laxus sighed. He knew if he didn't give his boss a direct answer, he would continue to try get an answer. "I was at a jewelry store."

"Jewelry store?" Jura raised an eyebrow at the detective.

"Yeah, the rest is sort of a secret." He told him.

"Hmm," Jura looked at Laxus, inspecting his body language. And like that, he knew what the man was hiding. "Alright." He asked no further questions.

"Thank you." Laxus was now about to leave the office.

"Laxus…" Jura called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Yeah?" He turned to look at him.

"Do tread carefully, the woman is dangerous." He advised him.

"I will boss, I will." He now left the office, closing the door behind him.

As he walked down the stairs, at the bottom of it was the familiar petite scientist. "Hey, wanna grab something to eat?" She greeted him.

"No, maybe later." He turned her down, stepping down on the last step of the staircase.

"What's wrong?" Levy asked him. He usually never passes up the opportunity to have breakfast with him, much less any other opportunity to spend time with her. "Did something happen at the bosses office?"

"No, it's just, I'm not that hungry." He told her, making up some type of excuse. As much as he wanted to, he wanted to wait, make her feel unappreciated for some time before telling her his proposal.

"… okay, are we still on for dinner later?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He answered now walking away from her to go to the next destination.

"That was… strange…" She stood by the staircase, watching the detective leave her be.

…

It was now 3:30 P.M. in the afternoon. Though Erza, along with Natsu in the passenger seat of her car, had been driving for more than 5 hours. "Are we there yet?" Natsu had continued to nag her with that saying for the last hour or so.

"You tell me that one more time, I will kick you out that door." She meekly threatened him as she drove.

"… sorry." He now stopped knowing she probably would do it.

She turned right, now entering Highway 17, the same place the article mentioned where the crash happened.

The scenario itself was already familiar to Erza, as she remembered this place from the dream _slash_ flashback she had when she crashed.

Natsu felt the car drive much slower and turned to look at Erza who seemed uncomfortably nervous. "Do… Do you remember something now?" He asked her. She had the look a person would make when she's seen a ghost of some kind.

"…" She didn't answer. Her nervousness showed when she erratically started to breathe in and out.

"Erza?" Natsu called out to her. He then placed his left hand on the steering wheel and with that, she stopped the car. "Hey, are you okay?"

She turned to look at him. "I… I don't know…" She started to breathe in and out, slowly.

"Do you remember something? Is that why you started to act like that?" He asked her, concerned for her well being.

"I do remember, but vaguely," she recollected. "When we crashed, when I was unconscious, I dreamt of this place, remembering this place." She took off her hands from the wheel and placed her arms over her chest, caressing her arms with opposite hands.

"And?" Natsu asked her.

"I saw myself in the backseat, my child self crying for my mother, my father, dead after the crash…" She continued. "After that though, I can't remember."

"That's okay, maybe… if we find where you crashed, you might remember." He told her.

"Do you mind if you take the wheel here? It might be better for me to look for the spot if I'm on the passenger side." Erza suggested to him, hoping he'd be the one driving her down memory lane.

"Anything for you." And like that, Natsu switched places with her.

He slowly drove down while Erza frantically looked around on both lanes. The trees all looked the same from when she remembered from her dream.

After several minutes of driving slowly, Erza saw a tree that was badly bent inward, like if a car had crashed into it. However, the mark on this tree was badly burnt, like something had set fire on it many years ago. "Stop." Nonetheless, her gut told her to investigate, making Natsu stop.

She took off her seat belt and walked right out of the car. She took little steps, closing in on the odd tree. She could feel it now, a flashback was about to occur as she stood in front of the tree by the road.

And like that, everything was vivid, now having another episode of a flashback.

This one was like the first one she had, staring at the accident in her child self eyes. She could see the crash from where she stood, but inside the car she was put in by the manly silhouette.

She could see the figure putting gasoline all over the car and on her parents. He came back to his car to put the gas container in his trunk.

He went back to it, now standing a few feet away from the crash. He took out a lighter from what seemed to be it's pocket. With a few tries, he managed to lit the lighter and threw it inside the car. Within seconds, the car was on fire and so were her parents.

" _Let's go, Erza._ "

"Erza!" The pinkette brought the scarlet haired woman back to reality. She blinked, making Natsu let out a relieved breath. "Oh, thank god. You were doing that thing again that you do."

"I finally know…" She muttered.

"Hmm, what was that?" He didn't hear what she said well.

"I finally know what happened," she walked towards the tree, touching it's burnt area. "This… This wasn't an accident, this was a murder."

"Are you sure about that?" Natsu asked her, hoping her instincts were right.

"Positive, the person who did this… abducted me…" She didn't want to say it, but she couldn't hold back that part of her information.

She had doubts and most certainly with what had happened to her parents, she knew her kidnapper. Somewhere, deep down inside, she knew that it was the one who mentored her, treated her like a daughter, and that person could only be, Jellal. The one who took her in.

"That's wow, do you remember who took you?" He asked her.

"… no," she lied. She tried as much possible to tell him the truth, to tell herself the truth. "… I spent most of my time in Orphanages… the reason why no one connected the dots…" She continued to lie through her teeth.

"I guess, seemed like the person tried to cover his own tracks." Natsu crossed his arms over his chest, assuming much of what the kidnapper might've done.

"Yeah…" She said.

"Well, we're not that far from the port town, maybe you can ask some more questions over there, maybe you have living relatives." Natsu started to walk back to the car.

"Living relatives, huh?" She muttered to herself. Though she only expected to investigate her own kidnapping, she didn't think as far to see that maybe she had relatives. Some that maybe knew her parents.

She walked towards the car, feeling a bit better than before, took over the driver's seat once more.

After another hour of driving, they finally made it to Caelum Town. It was a small town, the usual which everyone probably knew each other.

Having many ports, it lived up to its expectations to it being a trading port for Fiore and Caelum itself. Along with it's port was a carnival. A big one as well.

"Huh, didn't know they had a carnival visiting." Natsu said as he could see the Ferris Wheel, high and mighty from where they were. Indeed, the town was small.

Era had finally stopped right in front of the sheriff's office, parking in it's parking lot. A change from a city scenery to that of a town scenery was rather nice as the two saw the beautiful autumn leaves fall from the trees as they walked towards the building.

The two entered and saw one of the deputies' leaning on chair and his legs and feet on a desk, sleeping with on his arms as pillows. He had a brown cowl instead of a typical sheriff hat and an eye patch. He has a brown uniform and had the small star badge on his chest. "Uhm, excuse me?" Erza and Natsu stood in front of the desk.

"HEY!" Natsu yelled, also banging his hand on the desk.

The deputy woke up with the surprise, falling down with the chair and on the floor. He quickly picked himself off the floor, turning away from the two and dusted off the dirt from his clothing. "Sorry about that, I was just… meditating, yeah, meditating."

"Oh, okay." Natsu knew the man had just come up with that excuse, but simply let it go.

"Oh well, I have a few questions." Erza told him.

"Well let's hope I have the answers to them," He turned to look at them and suddenly the man's eyes widened, like he's seen a ghost. "Erza!? T-That really you?"

"Wait, you… you know me?" She was shocked to know that the deputy knew her.

"Oh my goodness, it is you!" The deputy jumped from behind the desk and went in for a hug, which surprised both Natsu and Erza. "Do you not remember me? I was your friend, Simon."

"Simon?" She was finally let go from his bear like hug.

"Her memory is a bit jacked up at the moment, you're going to have to give her time to remember." Natsu told the deputy.

"Hey, I know you, I seen you on TV," the deputy went in for a handshake at the pinkette. "Natsu, right?"

"The one and only." He shook his hand, and vigorously too.

"It's been 2 decades, where have you been all this time? Everybody else gave up on you, that you were dead, but not me, or Millianna." He told her.

"Who's Millianna?" Erza still couldn't remember anything, so the name didn't ring a bell.

"Wow, she really can't remember anything," Simon was surprised. "Well, she's your friend as well."

"I would've guessed so," she told him. "But, honestly, I'm only here to know where my parents are… where they were buried…"

"No reunion party, I see?" Simon understood. "Well, maybe if you saw where they are, maybe that'll help you remember."

"Maybe." She had hoped of that as well.

"Well, the house they used- you used to live in has been cleared out but there's a storage unit not far from here where we put all of your stuff," he told them. "Storage Unit B8."

"Where at?" Erza asked.

"Other side of town, that's also where the cemetery is, where we buried you three…" He answered. "I suggest you go to the storage unit first, maybe the stuff in it might help you remember."

"Thanks." The two walked away and headed back in the car.

Like earlier, it was a small town, so getting from one place to another didn't take long.

They found the storage unit Simon mentioned and parked right next to it. The got out of the car and headed towards the security guard which overlooked the keys to the place.

Without much trouble, Erza got the key to Storage unit B8. The unit was on the second floor, being the last unit at the end of the hall.

With the key, Erza unlocked it and Natsu opened it. A bunch of boxes were in it. "Wow, this is a lot of stuff." Natsu said, surprised everything from her house fit in it.

"I guess we should be looking for a photo album, huh?" Erza asked. Pictures were the best medicine in her case of amnesia.

"Oh, found one." Natsu said as the first box he opened contained a small album of photos. He gave it to her.

She laid out the book on one of the boxes and skimmed through it. Pictures of a red headed man and a dark haired woman were mostly in it. Like her dream, they look exactly like the couple she was, dead in the car crash.

She then stopped right at the last picture, a picture of the whole family. Her child self, her mother to right of her and her father to the left of her, all in a family portrait happy.

"Is that them?" Natsu asked as he saw the picture as well.

"Yeah, yeah I think these are my parents." She took the picture, folded it gently and placed it inside her pocket. She put the photo album back where it belonged and closed the storage unit.

"Are we heading to the cemetery now?" He asked her.

"Yeah." She answered.

"Are you ready to face them?" He asked her. He knew that this was the first time, in many years, that she would be meeting her parents, even if they are buried.

"… I'm ready." She answered, completely confident.

"Let's go then."

The two walked down the building and towards their car. After a few minutes of wandering around the town inside the car, the finally found the cemetery. It was small compared to that of one in the city.

_**Caelum Town Cemetery**_ , it read above the gates as they entered. "We should probably ask the grounds-keeper where your parents are buried." Natsu suggested as they randomly walked in the cemetery.

"It's pretty small, we should honestly be able to find them on our own." Erza said.

After a few minutes of wandering around the cemetery, the two finally found the engraved tombstones.

_**Erin Scarlet, 1969-1996, loving father and husband**_ , the first one said.

_**Zariah Scarlet, 1971-1996, loving mother and wife**_ , the second one said.

And finally, _**Erza Scarlet, 1988-1996, loving daughter of Erin and Zariah.**_

"Erin and Zariah… that's what there names were…" Erza kneeled down to their tombstones, touching the engravings of their names.

"They named you after their names," Natsu noticed. "E and R from _Erin_ , and Z and A from _Zariah_." He kneeled down beside her. "Together it formed-"

"Erza." She finished his sentence.

"Do you need some time alone with them?" He asked her.

"Would you mind giving me the time?" She asked him.

"Yeah, sure." And like that Natsu let her be.

Erza stared at her tombstone. Must've buried it without nothing. She then stared back at them, at their tombstones.

"So, we finally meet." She said, talking to them like they were still alive.

"I wish it could've… been in any other situation though…" She sat down, having her legs cross each other as she sat across from them.

"For many years, I was angry, I thought that Jellal's words were true, that he adopted me because… you never wanted me…" She looked down. Her voice began to sound raspy, almost holding her tears back.

"But I was wrong… I realized, from the photo album, that you loved me…" A small tear escaped, strolling down her cheek and falling down to the grass.

"I wish I could remember… the times I've probably made you worried as a kid… the times I would hurt myself and either one of you at my side, kissing my injury…" More tears escaped, after so long, her emotions were now bottling away with each tear that escaped. "The times I said _I love you mom_ or _I love you dad_ … or the times you said you loved me..."

"The times you've probably came to my room, helping me sleep while I had a bad nightmare… the times you showed me how to walk… talk… learn manners… all of those things…" She finally let go and waterfall of tears flowed down both her cheeks, continuously falling down on the grass, making that dead grass come back to live with each drop. "I wish I could remember!"

"But I can't, and it's killing me that I don't know." She continued to sob. "And I want to say I'm sorry! Sorry for hating you for something you never did! Sorry for thinking bad thoughts about you!"

"Sorry for ever doubting your love to me!"

Natsu could see her, crying from the distance. He himself couldn't help but have a tear stroll down his right eye as he saw the reunion between a girl who only ever wanted was to feel the love of her parents.

The pinkette wiped his only me year away and walked towards her. He sat down next to her, lending his shoulder for her to cry on.

"… can we just sit here for a bit?" She asked him, sobbing slowly now.

"Yeah, we can definitely do that." And like that, with a simple answer and a simple smile, he was there for her as she was there for him.

He put his arm over her shoulders, hugging her as she cried. Helping her as she finally showed her weakness. Being there for her when she needed it the most…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I sure did enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Finally listening to sad music and watching a lot of sad episodes from TV shows I like paid off. Hahaha.
> 
> Don't really have nothing much to say here besides that. See you next time when I update again.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I should really start naming my chapters, sometimes I myself get confused when I'm trying to re-update and fixing a few errors here and there.
> 
> Also, woo-hoo! The story finally has 100 favorites. Thanks a bunch guys!
> 
> Remember when I said that the story might have the rating changed to M? Like in approximately two chapters (or so), that change is gonna happen. Mostly because of some gore and stuff.
> 
> Alright, enough of all these ramblings and let's get down to the story…

Nightfall had stricken and in a cheap yet comfortable motel not to far from the storage unit which contained most of Erza's family belongings, did the two took refuge in.

It had been a long day, especially for Erza who took the bed while Natsu took the couch in the living room of the motel room.

She laid on the bed, facing the ceiling and having her left arm over her forehead, thinking about all the stuff she's encountered so far in the day. The flashback of the murder of her parents, her cries in front of her parents tombstones, so much had happened that made her feel stressed, both physically and mentally. Still, she finally had received some answers to her long lingered questions from the back of her head.

She got off the bed and went into the bathroom. Erza looked in the mirror, having her eyes puffy and red from her earlier tears.

"I look like shit…" She muttered to herself. She opened the sink's faucet, letting the cold water run. She held both of her hands, holding water in them, now splashing that water in her face as she cleaned herself a bit up.

Right next to the shower was there a towel in which she used to dry her face, gently tapping underneath her eyes with two fingers.

She placed the towel right back next to the shower. Erza looked at herself once more through the mirror. "I guess that'll do."

"Hey, Erza." A light tap on her door, followed by a voice from the other side of it called out to her. Must've been Natsu who went out and tries getting the two something to eat.

"Yeah?" She answered him, still in the bathroom.

"I got us some burgers, you hungry?" He told her what he got them.

Though she wanted to lie about not wanting to eat, her stomach on the other hand had a different opinion. Not left with many options, she gave in and walked towards her door, which connected her room to the living room in which the pinkette slept.

She opened the door and walked right out into the living room where Natsu had sat down on the couch and placed a brown plastic bag that had their food on the coffee table, waiting for her to join him.

He had made himself comfortable. At least one of them has to be after all what's happened. "Didn't know what exactly you liked so I just got a double stacked cheeseburger with bacon." He took out multiple aluminum paper wrapped burgers from the bag and placed two of them in front of him and the last two next to him where Erza took her seat.

"Not much of a burger person." Erza unwrapped her burger. She didn't fancy fast food but needless to say, she didn't like them.

"Come on, who can say _no_ to bacon?" Natsu said as his mouth was stuffed with a bite of his burger. So much for manners.

She sighed, with her stomach aching, longing for the burger, she took a bite of it and to her surprise the burger was actually good. "Wow, this is really- good." She took a napkin and wiped some ketchup that was on her upper lip.

"Yeah, that sheriff dude said that these were the best burgers in town." Natsu was half way done with his burger. He took a sip from his beverage and continued to divulge his teeth into his meal.

"They sure live up to that expectation." Erza took small bites, quite enjoying the flavor of the combination of meat and edible onion, lettuce, cheese and tomato.

"Oh yeah." He was now done with his first burger, now unwrapping the second one.

"Did you only get this?" She turned to look at him, now devouring his second sandwich.

Her question instantly made him reach into the bag. "Right, literally forgot to give you this." Unlike the burgers which were wrapped with the aluminum paper, he handed her a small box.

"What is it?" She asked, hoping to know it's contents before opening it.

"A strawberry cheesecake." He meekly answered.

She opened it. A slice, not too small but neither too big. The whipped cream was a bit all over the place, must've been when he was walking back with it. "Where'd you get it?" She grabbed a plastic fork that was next to the bag and over the napkins.

"There was this nice little pastry shop right around the corner of the burger joint," he recollected his steps. "Saw that it was the last slice on their counter and then I remembered the times you asked for a strawberry cheesecake slice at some of the events we were, so I bought and brought it."

"Oh, thanks." She gave him a small but heartwarming smile for his delicacy. And like he's done to his burger, she stabbed the slice of cake with her fork and took some in her mouth.

A sensation of well balanced ingredients, she's never had such a great tasting slice of cake like this one before. "I take by the look of your face, you enjoyed it, right?"

"Definitely!" She chewed on it slowly, enjoying the well sought out flavors that mixed in her mouth.

"You know I was thinking…" Natsu stopped for a minute, trying to say what was on his mind. "You know what, never mind, you'd probably find the idea kind of stupid."

"I don't know, you didn't even tell me what you were thinking." Erza looked at him, still having some left over cream on her upper lip, almost like a mustache.

"Would you really like to know what I was thinking, oh mustache lady?" He mocked her cream like mustache on her lips.

She glanced down to her lips and surprised to see the cream on her upper lips. She grabbed her napkin from earlier and wiped it away. "Haha, very funny," she couldn't help but chuckle at his light heart joke. "Now tell me what you were proposing."

"Like I said, you'd probably think it's a stupid idea." He sighed. He wrapped up his half eaten burger and leaned back onto the couch.

"Well, I'm waiting to hear your _stupid_ idea." She finally finished her cheesecake, putting the opened box she was using as the cake's plate on the table with still some left over crumbs and itsy bits of cream.

"…" He was thinking of the right words to choose from. "I was thinking… maybe we can go to… that carnival…" He held his breath, bit by bit hoping to hear what she was going to say.

"The carnival?" She remembered seeing the Ferris Wheel from when they entered Caelum Town. Erza imagined the smell of popcorn, other travelers trying to win prizes from game booths and the typical small but enjoyable rides people would get on.

"Yeah." Natsu stroke his cheek, slightly nervous to hear of her answer. He'd knew by now that she was slightly oppose of his ideas, for well being of course.

"…" She thought about it for a minute. Erza would've immediately said no, but maybe it was a good idea for them to got to the carnival, blow some of the rest of the stress she had.

"So?" He awaited an answer from the scarlet haired woman.

"Yeah, you know what? After everything that has happened, maybe we need it." And just like that, she got up from her seat, went into her room for her purse and walked up to the apartment's door.

"Awesome."

…

He was still at the precinct. Laxus had to stay over night, along with Gildarts and the two Interpol agents.

It was bad enough he had to cancel his dinner night with Levy but it was also bad enough that this was the second time he had given her the cold shoulder, something that may give the petite bluenette some mixed feelings.

He was in the office room where the chief had assigned the group to settle down. The blonde detective sat right across from the white board, staring intently at the pictures and thinking about the case… or at least that's what he made the others think as Ultear and Meredy took out some files from boxes and Gildarts who too was sitting across from the white board.

Laxus still thought about Levy, hoping he'd find some way to make it up to her.

Gildarts turned his attention towards the blonde detective. And instantly he knew the man wasn't thinking about the case at hand. "Alright my sparky friend, what's troubling you?"

"Hmm," Laxus was broken from his concentration, startled by the way he blinked as he stared away from the white board. "Oh sorry, just… probably nothing."

"Oh really? I know that look, I've had that same look before as well," Gildarts placed his left hand on the detective's right shoulder, patting it in comfort. "So, what'd you do to piss off your lady?"

"Which one?" Meredy joked around, getting the gawking stares from both men. Her humor wasn't so great.

"The real one." Still, Laxus was stressed, deeply sighing.

"The forensic scientist, right?" Gildarts remembered. Well, he remembered his bickering with her.

"Yeah, that one." He took a deep breathe.

"What? She doesn't like the security detail we put on her?" Ultear now butted into the conversation while placing some files that pertained to the current case with Minerva.

"No, it's not that, it's something else entirely." Laxus told them.

"Come on now, what'd you do?" Gildarts asked, hoping to get that bit of information he hasn't told him yet.

"I… may have given her the cold shoulder early in the morning…" The detective scratched underneath his chin. It was the first he's done so to her.

"Oh." Gildarts said.

"And I may have… given her the cold shoulder again…" He hunched over on his chair.

"Again?" Gildarts asked.

"Yeah, we were supposed to have dinner like an hour ago but with this case and all, I told her that I had to cancel…" Laxus answered.

"Bummer." Was all Gildarts had to say.

"And the worst thing was that… today was the day I was… finally going to propose to her." Laxus sighed.

"WHAT!?" His co-workers suddenly, and shockingly, all said in unison.

"Dude, it's been 3 months that you told me that you were finally going to propose, 3 FRICKING MONTHS!" Gildarts lashed onto the man, almost shaking the detective. "WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE SO YET!?"

"You know, if you had told us something, maybe we could've covered for you." Meredy had told the detective.

"Well I think it was a good idea not to do that." Ultear, out of all the people in the room, she had to be the one to say this.

"What? Why?" Her pinkette associate asked.

"Well for starters, we have a homicidal assassin _slash_ terrorist on the lose practically in a delusion that she's in love with the detective!" Ultear explained. "If she knew or saw that Laxus was proposing to that forensic girl, in her mind, she would think he was the one proposing to her. She'd probably kill her for the ring."

"Oh come on, that girl, Levy, has a security detail appointed to her, she would be fine." Gildarts retorted.

"He's right." Meredy agreed with the FBI agent.

"Point is, Minerva is dangerous and everyone in Detective Laxus' life is endangered, he should tread lightly." Ultear advised.

"Though you're right, something good at least has to come around some time, I mean his friend is in the hospital in a comatose state and one of the leads is dead," Gildarts reasoned and hopefully, Laxus was listening as well. "Something good should at least happen, like I said."

He was right. When something bad happens, at the very least, something good should be around the corner, whether you have to make it or not for it to happen. With those words, Laxus took out the small ring box from his inner pocket in his jacket, opening it and looking at it's beauty.

"Wow, that's a nice ring." From behind, Meredy stood right behind him, looking at the emerald embedded golf ring in the box.

"Yeah, it is," he smiled at the ring. And with that, he finally chose what he wanted to do. "Alright, I'm going to do it."

"That's great!" Gildarts cheered at his answer.

"Okay then," he got up from his seat and took out his phone. "Wish me luck."

He left the room, leaving the three to figure things out now.

Laxus, now in his car, drove out to the restaurant where he told Levy to meet him. Where he had canceled but managed to put a last minute reservation.

It was out of the blue, yes, but after treating her a bit harshly with the cold shoulder and such, she deserved what Laxus had been planning for many months now.

As he parked in the restaurant's parking lot, he saw the security detail in a black SUV, she had beaten him to the place first.

He quickly turned off the engine and got out of his car, making his way into the restaurant. _**Cesno's Pizzaria,**_ was the name of the restaurant. A fancy pizza place at that.

He was finally inside. "Hello, sir, do you have a reservation with us or are you currently looking for a table right now?" The hostess standing by right behind her desk asked.

"Uh, I canceled a reservation but just reserved another one under _Dreyar_ , a table for 2." Laxus answered her first question.

She looked at the names in her index cards that laid on her desk and saw the name. "Ah, your partner is waiting for you at table 7."

The hostess lead him through, taking him to his table where he saw Levy already waiting for him. Their table was right in front of the restaurant's big window, seeing the street and it's cars through and through.

"A waiter will be here shortly." She left the two now.

"Hey." Laxus greeted the bluenette, taking his seat right across from her.

She looked away, still pissed. Well, not pissed enough that she still came to the restaurant.

"You're not going to talk to me, aren't you?" He expected much of this scenario to play out like this.

And still, sitting in silence, looking away at the man and through the window, she sat there.

"Listen, I'm sorry I gave you the cold shoulder, and twice as well!" He pleaded for her, hoping she would at least talk to him.

She didn't give in like that and continued to sit in silence.

"Look, there was a reason why I did what I did." He tried explaining to her.

Still no budge from her side.

"This morning, the whole thing caught me off guard," now he hoped she was just listening to him. "Interpol and FBI and yada yada yada… it just caught me off guard, made me a bit more stressed out than usual."

She listened but she didn't look at him still. Her mouth was still shut.

"But I also got something before I made it to the precinct." He slowly reached into his inner pocket from his jacket. Her eyes followed closely at his hands, intrigued at what the man was going to show her. And then, her jaw dropped as she saw the ring box in his right palm. She covered her mouth with her left hand, at awe.

He got off from his chair and got on his right knee, kneeling towards her. His action alerted the eyes of the other people around them and made the waiters stop in their tracks as they saw the blonde man's moment.

"Levy McGarden," he opened the ring box. It's emeralds glowed right into her eyes, making them sparkle green. "I love you and it would mean the world, hell, the universe, if you would, forever, be my partner in crime, my apple to my eyes; to be my wife."

Tears escaped her eyes, bringing down waterfalls on her cheeks. "YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!" She happily jumped out of her chair and quickly jumped into the detective's arms.

The crowd around them cheered, happily clapping as the two now celebrated and rejoiced their happy moment.

"You still mad at me?" He asked her, breaking their deep kiss they shared.

"You know I can't stay mad at you, dork." She smiled at him, reassuring his worries.

"Hah!" He got off his knee and the two sat back down on their chairs. "Here, try it on."

He took out the ring from it's small box and gently placed it on her left hand's fourth finger. A perfect fit. "It's so beautiful!" She brought the ring close to her, inspecting it's beautifulness.

"You deserve it babe." Laxus enjoyed the bright smile that Levy made, it brought him joy to finally know that he tied the knot officially.

"I have to tell my parents! All of our friends!" Levy now had to plan the wedding, alert all her friends and family of the happiest moment she's ever received so far.

"Yeah, you do that." Laxus told her.

Just as he and her were finally relaxing, Laxus' phone rang. " **RIIINNGG!** "

Without checking the caller ID, he quickly answered. "Hello?"

"Yo, we just got a lead on a possible whereabouts on Minerva." It was Gildarts, informing him of new information.

"Seriously? That's great." The day was finally getting better by the minute.

"Yeah, I'll send you the address, don't want to do this without you man." Gildarts said through the other side of the line.

"That's fine by me, I'll meet you there." He hung up now.

"It's the case, right? You just got a possible lead?" Levy knew, but still, she put on a happy smile for him.

"Yeah, they got a location," and his text was now here. "And I just got it, 4984 Tauras St., in a motel on the other side of the city."

"Well then go babe, don't want to keep you hanging." She leaned over the table, gently kissing the man on his lips.

"Heh, see you at home then and do tell our friends about it!" He got off his chair and dashed right out of the restaurant.

A waiter finally approached her table. "Did he just leave?"

"He's a detective, it's fine." She told him.

"Oh, well someone just got you guys a nice bottle of champagne." He brought the champagne and two small cups.

"Really? And who was the person that bought us this?" Levy looked around the room. She knew people cheered when Laxus proposed to her but to buy them a bottle of champagne? That was very generous.

"I did," out of all the people in the room, from out of the shadows came out Minerva who know took a seat across from the petite bluenette. "Run along now sir, she and I have much to discuss." She gave her a creepy grin.

"Minerva." Levy wasn't in the slightest intimidated by her.

The waiter now left the two woman.

"It's good to finally meet you," Minerva opened the bottle of champagne and poured some in both small glass cups. "Here, why don't you have some?"

"Not in the slightest thirsty." Levy declined.

"Suit yourself, more for me then." Minerva quickly gulped down her drink and did the same for the other.

"What do you want?" Levy asked. She knew she wouldn't show herself to her unless she wanted something from her and only face to face was the only way.

"You know exactly who I want, the question is though, are you willing to give him up?" Minerva answered.

Levy knew who she was referring to: Laxus. She knew all about that infatuation she had over her boyfriend. How far she'd go for him though? That was still a mystery. "Not in a lifetime."

"Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Minerva got off her chair and as did Levy. "Don't try anything funny." She added. "Or else."

Knowing she wasn't in any way able to get out of this situation, Levy complied.

"Out the back, shall we?" Minerva suggested.

They walked through the kitchen and out the back where they now were in the middle of the alley.

They continued to walk for about a minute and then the two stopped completely in a different alley. "I'm guessing you're the one who sent the police to that motel on the other side of the city, no?"

"Smart girl, I can see why he would fall for a girl like you." Minerva now had a gun, now pointed over the bluenette's head.

"So, this is the part where you kill me?" Levy wasn't intimidated at all by the woman's repulsive actions.

"That depends," she put away the gun and took out a knife instead. One with a serrated edge. "You give me that ring he gave you and maybe you can leave here alive."

"No." Levy refused. After waiting many years for this moment to happen, not even a delusional terrorist like Minerva would spoil her day.

"Then you leave me no choice." Minerva lashed out at her.

Levy ran but Minerva was faster. He pulled her by the hair and with her knife slashed right on her back. "AHHH!" She yelled as the wound secreted a lot of blood.

With just that cut, Levy collapsed on the ground, face flat on the dirt. Minerva turned her around and grabbed her emerald gold ring from her finger. It's beauty now covered in blood. "Thank you for this."

"And thank you for this!" Levy had managed to get the woman's gun. She shot a bullet from below, shooting her right in her left shoulder from the front.

"AHH!" Minerva yelled, getting off Levy as she put her hand on her shoulder wound.

"Now die!" Levy now sat straight on the side of the dumpster, pointing the gun at Minerva. As she pulled the trigger, nothing came out and she realized that the gun was jammed. "Out of… all the things to happen now… this happens…" She chuckled, Minerva was saved by the most unexpected thing.

"I'm going to enjoy cutting you piece by piece!"

…

Laxus was halfway there in his car towards his destination. And the it finally hit him. He stopped the car, stomping and holding the brake pedal all the way down.

He realized that the address was nowhere near here. The motel couldn't be the place where she hid in the last few days.

Laxus started to have a bad feeling in his gut. He quickly took out his phone and dialed a number, Levy's number. "Come on, come on, pick up!" Her phone continued to go to voice message.

And his gut feeling turn for the worst when his dispatch radio reported a crime in progress. " _Shoots fired, I repeat shots fired at 1125 Baker Street._ "

Baker street, it was at least a block away from the restaurant he was in less than 15 minutes ago. "Oh fucking-" He immediately cut himself off and turned his wheel, making a U-turn back to the restaurant.

He didn't even bother to answer the dispatchers.

He made it back in less time, hauling ass on the gas.

Relentlessly, he checked the streets and afterwards the alleys. And finally, what he found shocked him the most. "No."

With his car still running, he got out of it and ran quickly to the victim. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Levy, his beloved girlfriend and fiancée laid lifeless on a pool of her own blood with her eyes still wide opened and her entrails and guts sticking out of her stomach. Lacerations all over her body as Laxus couldn't believe what had happened to her.

"No, no, no, no, nooooo!" Laxus stood right next to her body and broke down into tears. The love of his life, dead. He fell to his knees, continuing to look at her.

"Levy…" As a detective, he was supposed to preserve the scene but this was his loved. Even with her lifeless body, he closed her eyes and held her in his hands. "I should've been here… with you…" And once again, his agonizing cry, his loss, the person he loved the most no longer was here…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Should I have put spoilers for major death? Well, she was mostly a side character, but was still important to one of the main character's. Eh, I don't know.
> 
> Anyways, will be updating again in 1 to 2 days, this was supposed to be a long chapter but I ended having to split it up into 2, so see you soon!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: As promised, the second part of the chapter. I also want to note that what happens in this chapter correlates and is happening at the same time as chapter 17 is happening, i.e. "John is planting a bomb in a different city while Bob is out on a date with his wife," sort of like that.
> 
> With that said, let's get right into the story…

Unlike the city's atmosphere, the night sky was filled with many stars, constellations of many figures. One of the many perks that townsfolk have that city people don't.

As Natsu and Erza strolled the small port town, making their way to the town's carnival, they stopped quite a few times to admire the scenery the town had in the night sky under the moon's light.

"I can't believe I don't remember any of this," Erza said while looking and admiring the beauty of the small town. "Something as beautiful as this town should never be forgotten."

"Look on the bright side, at least you can enjoy the scenery of this town again, huh?" Natsu, as optimistic as ever, told her.

The two walked side by side, enjoying each other's heartwarming company.

Loud yells from many people, loud arcade music, the smell of popcorn in the air, the two were nearing their designated location. Only a few blocks left and finally, they stopped right in front of the town's carnival.

At the entrance, was there a booth with a man. A sign a on the very top that said _**Entrance.**_ Like the gentleman Natsu was, he took out a 20 dollar bill, hoping it was enough to pay for his and Erza's ticket to gain entry. "Hello, can I get 2 tickets please?"

"Here you go," a man with clown makeup took out 2 tickets inside a small little box next to him. He handed them out in exchange for the money. "Have a nice evening."

"Thanks." He looked at Erza who was standing right in front of the entrance, waiting for him. And with that, he began to walk with her again.

Not only was the smell of popcorn in the air but also many other things. Cotton candy to caramel covered apples, the Carnival's air was exotic.

"What do you want to do first?" He asked her. As far as mentioning going to the carnival, he didn't think as far as what to do when they got here.

"I don't know, let's look around I guess." She suggested.

"Alright." Agreeing with her. Like when they were strolling the town, they now strolled the carnival.

Many booths with many games. Many food and candy carts around. Not only was the carnival filled with the townsfolk but it had it's fair share of travelers and tourists by as well. Erza can tell the difference between the two.

From families to couples, the carnival was full with many people.

"Didn't think that many people were going to be here." Natsu looked around, avoiding and dodging people that were in a hurry.

"What!?" Erza could hardly hear him over the other people's conversations around them.

"I said, didn't think that many people were going to be here!" He loudly told her, hoping this time she heard him.

"Oh okay." She heard him now, but barely.

They continued to find booths, in hopes of finding a good game that wasn't either rigged or filled with that many people. One finally got Erza's attention, mainly because of a cute stuffed animal toy: a baby penguin. "Over here!" Erza grabbed Natsu by the hand, making him slightly blush as the two walked to a peculiar game booth.

"Hello good sir and ma'am." An old man, grey long beard and bald with casual attire greeted the two from the other side. Behind him was his son, a dark haired boy, giving his full attention to his Nintendo DS, his handheld gaming console.

"Hello," Erza greeted, now letting go of Natsu's hand. She looked at the game. A bunch of uncapped glass bottles were spread and a few of them had some small marbles. In between them were other marbles, failures if the game's purpose was to try and throw the small marbles into the glass bottles. "Let me guess, I have to throw a number of marbles into the bottles, correct?"

"Yes ma'am," the old man confirmed Erza's suspicions of the game. "You manage to throw all 15 marbles inside the bottles, you get to have 2 of any prizes from any of the toys we have hanging." He told them, pointing at the toys and other remarkable stuff he had hanging behind him on the wall. "Manage to throw 10, you get anything from the first two column of prizes. Anything below 10, from the first row. If you don't manage to get any, you get nothing."

"Seems reasonable, how much?" Natsu asked.

"5 dollars for 10 marbles, 7 for 15." The old man answered.

"Let me go first." Erza told Natsu. She was very eager to play the game.

"Alright, here 7 for them 15 marbles." Natsu handed over his 7 dollars. The old man grabbed them and handed over his 15 marbles to them.

He handed the marbles to Erza. She placed them on the counter next to her. With her right hand, she threw the first marble into left hand. Like flipping a quarter, she flung the first marble into the air and managed to put the first one right into one of the glass bottles in the back. "Yes!"

"Wow." Natsu was mildly impressed by her accuracy.

"Nice shot." The old man complimented.

"Beginner's luck." The kid in the back said. Unimpressed by her achievement but still his focus was on his handheld device.

"Hmm." Erza smirked at the kid, baffled at his words. With her training, she should be able to do this, and easily as well.

She continued on. With the same actions as before, with her right hand, she grabbed a marble and threw it in her other hand and flung it with accuracy as the second marble made into one of the back glass bottles.

3, 4, 5. Her accuracy was phenomenal. Natsu was impressed by it while the old man, jaw dropped at the sight of the woman not missing a single shot.

9, 10, 11. She was quickly going through her marbles. The kid now had his focus on Erza, amused by the show she was putting up in front of them.

"Last but not least," Erza was now on her last marble, confident of the perfect game she was going to have. Her finger was sweaty, but yet, still felt comfortable enough to fling it. "And perfect ga-" Like a basketball hitting the hoop but ultimate not getting the score, Erza missed.

"WHAT!?" Natsu, the old man and even the kid were all baffled at how she missed the last one.

"Eh, speak of the devil?" She had a poker face, dumbfounded at how she missed the last hit.

"Well, at least you still get a prize from the first two rows." The old man told her.

She looked at what she wanted: the cute stuffed baby penguin which was, unfortunately, at the top and third row of his tows. "Damn, I wanted the penguin…"

"Hold up, let me try now." Natsu took out another 7 dollars, handing the small bills to the old man.

"You think you can do better than her?" The kid asked the pinkette.

"Maybe." Natsu stretched his arms, hands and neck.

The old man got his bag of marbles ready, handing them over to the gentleman. "Here you go."

"I highly doubt, you can do better than me." Erza chuckled at the thought. He was a politician and she was a highly trained assassin, she had him outclassed.

Natsu didn't bother with a comeback and simply got out 4 marbles at one, placing them in between his fingers. His action gave the others mild reactions.

"You're kidding me right!?" The old man couldn't believe what the pinkette was going to do.

"Might as well just get the next 7 dollars ready." The kid sighed, walking back to his seat and took out his handheld console.

"There's no way you can make all 4 of them." Erza told him.

And with that, Natsu flung them up and to everyone's surprised, 1, 2, 3, 4, all of them hit different bottles and going in them.

"WHAT!?" The three were stunned at his show.

Again, he took out four marbles and placed them in between his left hand's fingers, flung them high in the air, going right inside 4 different glass bottles around the table.

"That's amazing!" The old man said.

"That's unreal!" The kid stared at the pinkette at awe.

"Wow!" Was all that could Erza could say. His mild feats were astounding.

He repeated his actions once again, flinging the marbles in the air and going inside different bottles. He happily grinned, now left with 3 marbles left.

He showed off some more skill, trick shooting the last remaining three marbles he had. The first, he hit on the desk, bouncing it once more and into the glass bottle at the back of the desk. The second, he trick shoot it from the wall, flinging it with his fingers. With it's ricochet, it made it into one of the middle glass bottles. Finally, without looking, he flung the last marble facing the other way. And like his other trick shots, he made it. Natsu had manage to throw all the marbles in different bottles, not missing.

The three applauded his feats.

"Amazing!" The old man clapped slowly.

"Terrific!" The kid clapped meticulously fast.

"I'm impressed!" Erza normally clapped.

"Thank you, thank you very much," Natsu imitated an Elvis Presley voice. "Now I believe you owe my friend here that cute penguin up there."

"Of course, of course!" The old man got on the stool in which the kid was using as a seat and grabbed the penguin. He, carefully, got down from it and made his way back to the front of his booth. "Here you."

"Thank you." She grabbed the small baby penguin from his hands and onto hers, happy to see the cute penguin up close.

"Alright then, have a nice day you two." Natsu, along with Erza, waved his hand in goodbye as they walked way from the booth.

"You two."

"Thanks." Erza hugged Natsu, making the man blush as the two walked awkwardly close together.

"I- uh- no problem." Natsu stuttered, looking away for her not to see his blush.

She finally let go of him, enjoying and hugging the small cute stuffed animal. "Where did you learn how do to that?" She asked, intrigued in as to how a man like him managed to pull off what she couldn't.

"When I was little, my mother and I would play with the marbles," he explained. "She taught me how to throw them with accuracy and such, that's why I'm so good at them."

"Oh, that's cool." The two continued to walk around the carnival.

They went to several different game booths, winning most of them, if not, all of them with ease.

From flinging darts at balloons to pop them, from trying to dunk a man into a pool of water, the two were enjoying their evening and pretty well.

After a few good laughs here and there, they didn't notice that the two of them were holding each other's hands, walking like a couple.

Natsu noticed as he looked to his right side where he held her left hand. "Oh, uh, sorry about that." He quickly let go of her hand, blushing about having to hold her hand like that.

Erza smiled. "I-It's alright." She blushed as well but even to her own surprise, she clenched on his hand once more, enjoying his heartwarming feel of his hand onto hers.

"Hey, let's go over there." Natsu pointed at a palm reader's booth, not to far from them.

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow at his pick. She didn't believe in that fortune telling mumbo-jumbo. It was a waste of time and just pure scam of people's money. "I don't really want to."

"Oh come on Erz," he and Erza slowly walked towards the tent like booth. A sign in front of them had the words _**Free Palm Reading and Fortune Telling**_. "It even says free."

She sighed. Erza thought about it for a few seconds, thinking whether to waste her and his time doing this phony baloney thing. She sighed once more, picking up and raising her white flag of surrender. "Fine."

"Alright."

The two entered the tent. Pretty comfortable, even it was rather small. An old lady with a peculiar mole on her chin, blue mascara atop her eyelids and a weird attire that looked like it came from the movie Aladdin, sat across from them.

Unlike most fortune tellers, she didn't have a magical glowing ball in the middle of her table. Nonetheless, the two sat right across from her. "Hello." Natsu greeted.

"Hello there child." The old lady greeted back.

"We saw your sign, maybe you could tell me my future?" Natsu told her.

"She doesn't seem too happy to be here." The old lady looked at Erza, having her arms crossed around her chest.

"You could say I'm a bit skeptical about this," Erza glared at the woman. Wasn't nice staring, but still, Erza inspected every inch of her from where she sat from.

"Oh? Perhaps you might want to go first then? To see if you're still skeptical about it?" The old lady told her.

"No thanks." She declined the offer.

"Of come on Erza, at least let her read your palms." Natsu tried to convince of at least that much.

"Fine, just my palms though." Erza extended both of her palms, placing them on the table.

The old lady placed hers over hers, closing her eyes and meditating. "You are stressed."

"Tell me something I don't know." Erza rolled her eyes, anyone can guess if somebody is stressed or not. Hers was obvious, her being here in this tent made her stressed.

"Ah yes, you're conflicted," the woman began. "Having doubts of a person you've long trusted, fearing his trust has been all but a lie, one after the other."

"…" Erza was at a loss of words. Her words, we're very much true. With everything that has been going on, she very much had doubts about that person.

"Hmm, interesting." The old lady continued to meditate, reading out what she could feel.

"What is it?" Erza asked.

"There's another man in your life, however this one you've only met him for a short time, yet somehow, you very much trust this man with all your heart," she read. "Though because of your past, because of the things you've done in your life, it's complicated. You won't open up for him, not yet at least."

"Wow." Erza was amazed at her reading.

"This man, he's this very man, right here, correct?" She opened one eye, looking at Natsu who just seemed to witness the magic.

"Erh, uh, maybe." She blushed, embarrassed that the woman just did that.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better Erza, I trust you a lot as well." Natsu happily smiled in her direction.

"I can also sense your future," she began to meditate once more. "Just like your past, it's vague and dark however, with the choices you make now, the chances you take and make count, can lead to a great future, one where you no longer have to be in the shadows alone. Your loved one, won't judge you for the decisions you make, for the past you once had, because they will stand next to you no matter what."

"That's just, wow." That was a lot to take in, especially for Erza.

"That's all I have for you." The lady brought her palms back to her as de Erza.

"Do me now." Natsu was excited for his fortune.

"I don't have to read your palms to know your future Mr. Dragneel." She gave the man a small smile.

"Oh, why's that?" He asked her.

"Because, I already know that the decisions you make will certainly improve the lives of everyone," she told him. "Also because I'm voting for you, I very well see you winning with a landslide."

"Heh, thanks." A small chuckle escaped as her last sentence brought a smile on Natsu.

"I should warn you that a lot of things, bad and tragic things, would happen to you but because of them, you grow stronger, your will is never broken," she told him. "Well that's all I could tell you."

"Well thanks for the… advice." Erza thanked her, extending her arm for a handshake for her amazing fortune telling and palm reading.

"Yeah, thanks." Natsu only gestured a wave goodbye.

"Likewise for your participation." The lady shook her hand, showing her gratitude of their presence.

The two left her tent and now back out into the crowd of people wandering the port side carnival. "She was pretty incredible." Erza had to admit that much.

"Yeah, she was," Natsu looked around for a different booth. Something else caught his attention. "Let's go over here." He grabbed Erza by her hand and the two walked towards the edge of the water.

A sign right in front of them and a man inside a canoe, taking coupled and pairs alike far into the water and back. "Bonjour monsieur, Madame." He tipped his hat as the two approached them.

"Hello," Natsu greeted him. "So how far do we get?"

"Oh, well today is Fireworks day," he then pointed at a boat not far from here in the water. "Over there my friend is setting up the fireworks, I row the boat in a position where you two can enjoy the show."

"Natsu," Erza brought him close, whispering in his ear. "What are you doing?"

"What? Can't I enjoy the fireworks with my friend?" He retorted back.

"So what'd say thee my friends?" The man asked the two.

"Yes." "No." The two said in unison.

"Oh come on Erza, just want to enjoy their fireworks show." He told her.

"Huh!" She grunted at him. "You don't… you don't understand!"

"What is it I don't understand?" He gave her a confused look. He had no idea what the woman was talking about.

"Nevermind." She started to walk away. As she did, she didn't know she dropped the cute penguin Natsu had won for her earlier today.

"Erza! Sorry man, another time!" He apologized at the man. He ran towards her not before picking the small stuffed animal.

He finally caught up to her on the beach where she and him dragged their shoes over the sand. "Erza!" He yelled for her one more time, finally catching up to her. "Damn you're a fast walker." He stopped right in front of her, stopping her in the midst as well.

"What do you want?" She asked him, in an irritated tone.

"You dropped this!" He gave her the cute penguin.

She took him, looking at him and remembering how he had won it for her earlier today.

"Hey, what's wrong? What did I do to make you so upset?" He asked her, pacing his breathing once again.

"It's just…" She rubbed up against her shoulder, looking away at him into the shoreline. "The games, the holding of hands… it was nice but sharing a canoe to watch some fireworks? It's a bit out of my comfort zone…"

"Oh come on Erz, you should… know by that… we're just friends. A friend that's just here to help you…" He has trouble saying what he had to say. As much as he wanted to admit, the feelings he had for, he didn't. He didn't want to ruin the good thing they had so far as friends, as his bodyguard.

"…" Of all days, the memory of her hesitation came back and the very same memory of admitting she had some feelings for that man… all of it, came back. "Natsu…"

"Look, I just wanted to you to be happy, to remember these moments, okay?" He told her.

**Just tell him…** The voice inside her head told Erza. She looked down on the sand, contemplating the idea of admitting the feelings she harbored for him. With the good things they've done so far, how he was there for her back at the cemetery, how he was willing to come all this way for his help.

The evening they enjoyed today, the feelings she had on grew more and more as they moments were tender and innocent.

How he managed to win her more stuff in the game booths, how he's managed so far to make her happy of all days. She felt the need, she needed to know how he felt about her. Was it mutual or not?

"Erza?" Natsu looked at her, awaiting her response.

"I am happy," she finally answered him. "Today has been… one hell of a ride…" She continued. "You were there for me when I needed you the most… I trusted you and you trusted me…"

She gulped down some saliva, having trouble finding the words she needed. "And you have been the only person so far that has somehow brought a smile to my face, made me laugh and most important… filled a void inside that no one has been able to fill in so long…"

"What are trying to say?"

**BANG! BANG! BANG!** The fireworks commenced but their appearance in the night sky didn't distract the two from each other at the moment.

From a pink color to green and such, the two glowed from the light of the fireworks.

"What I'm having trouble saying…" She turned to look at him. Her eyes met his. She licked her lips before continuing. "… is… I had trouble knowing, confirming my feelings for you…"

Natsu's eyes widened. "I… I didn't know…"

"Since the party, since the dance, your heartwarming company was the best thing that could happen to me," she told him how far it went back. "And since then, I grew complicated over these feelings but now, after the past several days, you've confirmed for me that I indeed did have some feelings, strong feelings for you…"

"…" Natsu could only stare at her, listening to her confession.

"I'm just hoping you felt the same-"

Suddenly, Natsu hugged her. His actions prompted her to drop the things she held. "Erza, you're an amazing person," he whispered into her ear. "You've saved me countless of times, you're my hero. It's impossible to not fall in love with you when you're my knight in shining armor and I'm the… damsel in distress?"

She chuckled at his remark, happy to hear that he indeed showed the mutual feelings. "Yeah."

She pulled away from him but still in his embrace. They faced each other and under the dim light of the fireworks could they see their respective faces, lips only mere inches away from each other.

The fireworks continues in beat with their hearts, closing in on each other's faces.

"Natsu…"

"Erza…"

And the moment they long waited to happen; a kiss underneath the moon and stars and in the horizon, the fireworks that mimicked the sparkles they had when the kissed.

She placed her hands over the back of her neck while he placed his hands on her waist. A passionate kiss and the first kiss that finally represented the feelings for one another.

Their kiss finally ended when their lungs longed gasped for air. "Erza…"

"Yes?" She meekly smiled at the pinkette, still in their embrace. Her arms now rested on his chest while he wrapped her in his arms.

"I just wanted to say that-" **Sting!** He stopped midsentence when he felt a stinging sensation at his left side of his neck. He instantly let her go and touched the part of his neck where it stung.

"Natsu, are you okay?" She looked at him, worried that something happened to him.

"S-Something…" He started to blink, overcome by dizziness. He fell to the floor but Erza managed to break his fall. "S-Some… Somet-thing stung me…"

**Sting!** This time, Erza was now stung by her right side of the neck. She instantly reacted by grabbing where it stung. "What the!"

"Erza...?" And suddenly the pinkette was now unconscious on the sand.

"Natsu!" Her own body steadily lost strength, feeling the same symptoms as Natsu.

"Sorry to crash your party, Erza." A third party joined in.

Her eyesight became blurred but she knew that voice. "D-Dobengal…" She tried to reach in for her Sai that was on the side of her leg.

"Ah, ah, ah," he warned her. "But if you try that, I will kill your lovely boyfriend, you don't want me to do that, do you?"

"Nngh…" She tried her best to stay fight whatever poison he had shot her with. She obeyed his orders, not trying to start a fight she'd know she'd lose.

"Good girl," Dobengal told her. "Don't worry, I shoot you with a small needle that is able to knockout an elephant, and my, my, how you're holding up indeed."

"Where… w-where are you taking him?" He was here for one reason: Natsu.

"Some place, comfortable to say the least." He laughed, tying up Natsu and picking him up to take.

"Y-You… you bastard!" With her body weak, she fell to the floor as she was losing consciousness.

"Don't worry, unlike you know who, I can be a bit merciful," he told her. "If you can find me in 4 days, fight me on even hand, then I'll consider giving you back your lovely pink headed fellow."

"Don't! Please, I'm begging you, don't take him." She pleaded, hearing him drag his feet over the sand.

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle with him," he continued to laugh, almost mockingly. "Ta ta, Erza."

"No…" With the last bit of strength, she reached out her hand towards them. It didn't help her and soon, she found herself closing her eyes and finally unconscious…


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I have some real good momentum at the moment with the story. That and I really appreciate all the reviews and compliments for the last 2 chapters, I appreciate them.
> 
> Some of you are wondering why I killed off that certain character, well sometimes I have to make sacrifices for the sake of the character's development. Plus, a death of a loved one is much more impactful to the character instead of a random one. It was heartbreaking to say the least about writing that bit but I will still stand by decision.
> 
> Other than that, I hope you can understand why I chose to do that. Now that we got that out of the way, let's start the next chapter.

To him, everything was silent. From the cops putting up and extending the crime scene duct tape from one end of the building to another as they secured one of the entrances to the alley, the sounds of medical examiners putting the victim in a body bag and carefully picking the gurney up as they dragged the body into their truck, everything was so silent to him.

He still couldn't believe it. The love of his life, the Apple to his eye, the light to his shadow, was very taken from him. Laxus sat in silence in Gildarts' car, watching from the front passenger side as the red haired agent took over the crime scene.

From his jacket to the white shirt he wore underneath, Laxus was drenched in blood, her blood. Her stared at his blood covered hands, still picturing the sight of Levy in his arms.

He closed his eyes, hard enough to prevent the flowing of tears he had been holding back. Right there and then, he had to accept the reality. The reality of losing a dearly loved one. And was his fiancée.

Gildarts finally came back, checking up on him as he opened the driver's seat, talking to him as he stood outside of his car. "Hey, you okay?" He saw the image of a broken man, silently sulking in his tears as the crime scene was processed.

Nothing. He didn't say anything. Laxus continued to watch from the window as the EMTs took her lifeless body back in a place he'd never thought he'll see her: the coroner's morgue.

"Hey man, talk to me." Gildarts tried once more to get him to talk.

Nope, still not bulging.

And with that, Gildarts closed the door to his car and headed back to the crime scene where the Interpol agent were as well. "He saying anything?" Meredy asked as she saw the FBI agent heading towards them.

"Nope." He sighed, standing right next to them.

"The Chief called, he handed over the case to us now." Ultear said, coming back from a phone call she had.

"Well after what just happened," Gildarts looked right back at his car and back at them. "I would've made that call as well."

"How's he holding up?" Ultear asked, concerned for the man's emotional state.

"Not good, he's not talking to me." He answered her.

"Let me go talk to him." Meredy asked Gildarts, lending her words now.

"Go right ahead." Gildarts affirmed her.

"Let me borrow your keys." The pinkette now asked for his car keys, a strange request that had the FBI agent raise an eyebrow.

"Um, the car is unlocked." Gildarts assumed that was her reason for the keys.

"Just trust me for god sakes!" She told him.

Still having no clue as to what the woman intends to do with his keys, he gave in and as she requested, gave her the keys.

She walked away from the two and towards the car. Slowly, she approached and opened the door and sat right down on the driver's seat, closing the door for her and the detective's privacy. "Hey." She greeted him.

Like how he responded with Gildarts, silence. Only stared at the crime scene, agonizingly looking at pool of Levy's blood that was on both the ground and on the side of the dumpster.

"Come on, talk me." Though she's only known him for the last day or two, she had considered herself to be his friend to say the least.

No words still just as he has been doing since the got here.

Meredy then took out the keys, which she borrowed from Gildarts of course and placed it right inside the keyhole, turning the key and engine on. "Guess we're going to have to do this the hard way." And like that, she drove off.

"Did she just-" Gildarts cut his sentence short as the pinkette drove away in his car with Laxus.

"Yep." Ultear witnessed the same thing he did.

Gildarts dashed out of the alley, not seeing where exactly his car went. "WHAT THE HELL!?"

As she drove, not knowing where exactly she herself knew they were going, the running engine was all that can be heard. Silent as ever with the radio of.

"Why did you do that…?" Laxus finally broke his silence, speaking softly, asking her why she drove away from the crime scene.

"To finally get you to talk," she answered him as she took a turn left. There was hardly any traffic at night. "You kept staring at… her pool of blood… it made me worry a bit."

"I… I had finally proposed to her…" He looked back at the earliest memories today. "She was… so happy when I… told her…"

"I know big man, I know." She tried comforting him.

"You don't know… you don't know what it's like to lose someone… to lose the person who always stood by you… who made you happy…" He silently sobbed again.

Suddenly, the car came to a full stop and right in the middle of the street. Still, with hardly any traffic around, stopping in the middle of the street could cause problems, none of which Meredy really cared for.

She looked at him and he looked right back, carefully thinking of what words to say next. Instead of words, Meredy took out a small picture from her inner jacket's pocket and handing it to Laxus. "Who's this?" He asked her, looking at a picture of her and an unfamiliar man right beside her, hugging her. He was had dark hair, beautiful green eyes and was very well built in shape.

"That man is… was… my husband…" Meredy, softly, answered his question.

"I… had assumed much," he gave her the picture back. "What happened?"

"A gangbanbger mugged and killed him, all because of a gold watch I had bought for him on our 3rd year anniversary…" She looked at the picture of herself and him. A smile she once had because of his presence was all gone. "It's been… 2 years already since I last seen him."

"…" Laxus felt her empathy. She lost a loved one just as she did.

"You feel like it's your fault, correct?" Meredy asked him. "I know how you feel, at first, I felt like I was responsible for my husband's death… feeling terrible…"

"…" He silently listened to her. He did feel responsible, leaving Levy all vulnerable back at the restaurant.

"But I realized that no matter how hard I try to sugarcoat it, to somehow feel at ease," her voice sounded raspy, holding back the tears of remembrance. "That it never gets easy…"

"I'm… I'm sorry…" He placed his bloodied hand on her shoulder, comforting her.

"They never got the thief…" She continued. "Even till this day, I ask the cops about the progressed they've made in his case."

"Nothing, I would assume." He guessed.

"Yeah, but unlike you, you still have a chance to put your killer away, the one who took your loved one." Meredy placed her right hand on his hand, the one he placed on her shoulder as he comforted her.

"Y-You're right," he took off his hand from her shoulder. From underneath all the tears he and she shared, a smile, faint, but still a smile crossed over his face as he gave it to her. A heartwarming smile came from he as well. "Thank you."

"N-No problem," she turned the car's engine back on. "We should head back, Gildarts is probably cursing at my name right about now."

"More like the moment you drove off." He corrected her.

" **RIIINNGG!** " Suddenly, the detective's phone went off, ringing as their small moment of conversation was broken.

"Must be him." He took out his phone from his pant's right side pocket.

"Probably." She drove again, taking the first left turn at the intersection.

He looked at the caller ID, _**Blocked Call**_ , was on the cracked screen of his phone with both the answer and ignore button were on the bottom. He gulped down some saliva, nervous of who the blocked caller it was. Nonetheless, he answered. "Hello?"

"Ugh… she shot me good…" Minerva. Of all the people who would call me right now, had to be her. He could hear her harshly panting.

"Minerva." He said loudly. Meredy stopped the car again, this time leaving the engine on as she looked at Laxus.

"I did… what I-I had to… she was a nuisance to my affection to you…" Her panting was becoming irregular, harshly breathing in and out.

"SHE WAS MY FIANCEÈ! MY GIRLFRIEND!" He yelled through her phone. "AND YOU KILLED HER!"

"I DID IT FOR US!" She followed with her own yell, even Meredy heard it from where she sat.

"Lady, you're a psychopath! Insane!" As redundant as that sounded, Laxus continued. "You're twisted, unimaginable love? It's all fucking fake! In your goddamn mind!"

"Baby… please…"

"No, don't you dare!" He continued his conversation with his raised voice. "I will find you, I will have justice for what you did to her, you hear me!? And don't ever call me again!"

He hung up now and in a fit of rage, he rolled down his window and threw his phone out the car and onto a building's brick wall, breaking and scattering the phone into pieces all around.

…

"Is she still alive?" A group of high teenage beach goers were around Erza as she laid unconsciously on the sand.

"I don't know man," one of the teenagers with a long branch stick began to poke her with it. "She feels dead."

With his constant poking with the branch up against her lower back, Erza was finally regaining consciousness. "… nngh…" She slowly started to pick herself up.

"Holy shit dude, she's alive!" The group of friends were startled by her sudden movement.

"She's a zombie! Run for your life!" They all ran from her, leaving her be on the beach.

As her vision finally came back to her. On the horizon, she saw the sunrise, making the water in front of her vibrant with orange and yellow colors.

She sat on her knees, trying to remember what had happened. Then she looked right in front of her. The sand acted almost like a chalk outline, placing another body right in front of her, dragged and picked up.

Her realization finally kicked in when she felt the cute stuffed penguin next to her. "Natsu!" Erza yelled his name out.

She tried to figure out his whereabouts as she got up from her knelt position and ventured out of the beach.

Erza looked around in the parking lot. Nothing out of the ordinary and as she suspected and worried much, no sign of him.

Her phone started to ring and vibrate in her purse. Taking out the phone and answering it without looking at the caller ID. "Dobengal, you son of a bitch!"

"You kiss your mother with that dirty mouth of yours?" The elusive assassin chuckled at his remark. "Oh wait, she's dead."

"You shit, where did you take him!?" Ignoring his uncalled joke, she got right into her main interest.

"Oh, you mean that pink headed lover boy of yours? Oh why, he's right here next to me, wanna say hi?" He continued to laugh.

"I want to know if… if he's safe!" That's she's worried about. After so long, she never experienced a weakness like this. The weakness of not knowing where your loved one has been taken to.

"Erza, like I said, I'm much more merciful than our mutual boss of ours," he finally stopped laughing. "He's, well heartedly, okay."

"Better be, cause if you so lay one finger on him, I will murder!" She threatened him..

"Oh, but isn't that the only thing you were ever good at?" He told her. "Tell me, how oh how did you go head over heels for your target? That's not like you."

"You should worry about your life, not mine!" At this point in the conversation, Erza knew he wasn't going to tell her where he is.

"Oh but that's just it, I want to know how you, the best assassin in this shindig, fell in love with this man right here," Dobengal continued. "I want to know how a woman with no weakness whatsoever, finally became so fragile as the person she was so fond of, was taken from her."

"I swear to God, I will find you!" She yelled at him once more through the phone.

"The clock is ticking Erza, you better hope you find me in the next 3 days," he lowered his voice. "Cause if you don't, the next time you see your boyfriend, is in a body bag."

"…" Erza now had to play his game.

"You know my associates," he gave her the first hint. "Blackmail them, bribe them, rough them up a bit, hell, even mill them, one of them knows exactly where I am."

"That's it!?" His task, it sounded way to easy for Erza to do.

"I could've made it much more difficult, a scavenger hunt all over Fiore, but I didn't," he told her. "I just want you to find me, so when you come here, I can beat you and kill you, right in front of him to see."

"A fight then?"

"Yes," he answered her. "Now, if you excuse me, your little pink birdie is finally waking up."

"No, don't hang up!" She asked him.

"Bye, bye, Erza." And like that, he hung up.

…

"Ugh…" Natsu groaned as he felt his arms and legs were tied to the chair he was placed and sat on.

His vision was both blurry and disoriented but after a few seconds of blinking and waiting, it was back to normal. And right in front of him, sat a man in black Kevlar body armor, his face half covered with a black scarf and brown colored hair.

"Who the hell are you?" Natsu asked. He couldn't move as much as he wanted to.

"Let's just say I'm the new assassin hired to kill you." The man just got straight to the point.

"Now if that were true, I should be dead on the floor with my own pool of blood." Natsu continued to struggle his hands free from the bounds. No bulge whatsoever.

"Touché," the man got up from his seated position walking right in front of Natsu's view. "Do you know her?" He took out a picture of Erza.

"That's… my friend." He felt uneasy, but still vaguely answered the man.

" _Friend_? Weren't you making out with her on the beach when the fireworks went off?" He had corrected the pinkette.

"…" Natsu gulped down some saliva, nervous of the next questions he was going to be asked. "Well aren't you some kind of pervert, watching us do that." He now joked, coping mechanism for what's to come.

"Hahaha, funny guy aren't you?" The man sarcastically laughed at the pinkette's joke.

"Many people have told me so, yes." As much as the question was rhetorical, he had given the man a rhetorical answer.

"Tell, do you love this woman?" He continued to show her the very same picture of Erza, hovering it around his head.

"Hmm, am I inclined to answer?" He retorted back with a question.

"Yes if you want to live." The assassin answered. He then brought out a cart, with many tools. From different kind of tools, mainly for torture.

"Ooh, am I supposed to be intimidated?" Natsu smirked at him. His intimidation didn't affect him at all.

"No." Suddenly, the man threw a bucket of water at Natsu.

"What the hell!?" He was drenched. His spiky hair was down and his clothes were drenched.

The man finally picked his tools, red and black clips with a cables that connected to a car battery. "You're going to be tortured." And with that said, the man connected the tips of the clips to Natsu's clothing, shocking him.

"AAAHHHHH!" The course of electricity ran through his body, screaming at the top of his lungs as he endured the pain.

It only lasted about 2 seconds, but the everlasting pain stayed for more. "Now let me ask you again…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Oh well, will be updating in a couple of days.
> 
> Hope you liked the chapter. It seemed a bit slower than my other chapters, but bare with me, it gets better.
> 
> See you guys later.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I never thought I'd actually make it to 20 chapters! Holy crap!
> 
> I want to thank everybody who have been following since the very beginning and those who just started reading it as well. I also want to thank those who have encouraged me to write and those who've waited patiently for me to update. I love you all!
> 
> And story time!

* * *

Bruises. Cuts. Agonizing, endless pain. Natsu endured it. Dobengal, the assassin torturing him, continued to break him in any possible way as the pinkette gave him nothing but jokes after each question he wanted an answer to. "Had enough?"

"Huh… huh…" Exhausted, Natsu heavily panted. His current torture was now getting burned by a heated screwdriver with a small blowtorch, slowly going from the legs to his arms and upper body.

"Hey buddy," Dobengal grabbed him by the hair, pulling him up and making the pinkette look at him. From black and purple bruises to minor cuts, the man looked like shit. "You're finally going to answer my questions truthfully?"

Natsu then spat on the man's face, right on his forehead. Both saliva and blood mixed. That was his answer.

With his long black sleeved covered arm, Dobengal wiped away the saliva and blood. "Eww, gross."

"Ha…" Natsu weakly laughed.

"Well, let's continue where we left off, shall we?" Dobengal grabbed the badly burnt and melted screwdriver, placed it under the blowtorch and once again, placed the burning hot screwdriver somewhere on Natsu's body, this time on his chest.

"…haaaahhhhh…" Natsu lowly screamed, the screwdriver melted through his shirt and right on his skin, enduring the pain inflicted upon him.

The assassin took off the screwdriver from the pinkette's chest, placing his torture tool back on his cart of other tools. "This is only going to get worse." He warned him of what's to come.

"Really?" Natsu took his warning lightly, brushing it off immediately. He gave the man a smug like smile. "I thought you were still warming up, buttercup."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," again with the small time jokes the assassin didn't like. He looked at his tools, now trying to figure out his next torture technique. "Why must you make this so difficult?"

"Why must you look like a ninja from an anime?" Natsu jokingly asked. "Like seriously, don't you have anything else better to do like becoming a hokage?"

Dobengal finally picked his new tool: pliers. He then walked towards Natsu, once again grabbing him by the hair and forcing his mouth open. "Open wide now, the dentist is here!"

"Mhaamm!" The pliers gripped one of the molars from the back of his mouth, unable to properly speak. "AAAAHHHH!" The pliers were out of his mouth, along with a bloodied teeth at it's end. Blood escaped his mouth, tasting the metal like flavor at the tip of his tongue.

"Oh look at that, you ate too much candy." Dobengal joked as he looked at the molar he forcefully pulled from Natsu.

"Fuck you!" Natsu coughed up some blood.

"Now you understand my annoyance with your jokes?" He placed the pliers on the cart and turned back, kneeling right in front of Natsu.

"No, your joke didn't have any zing to it, that's why I hate it." Even with his mouth all bloodied, he still gave the assassin a smug like smile.

A stern, annoyed look loomed over Dobengal's face as he glared at the man. He got back up, picked up the pliers once more and like earlier, forcefully grabbed Natsu by the hair and pushing the pliers in his mouth as he was about to repeat his action once more.

"Ah! AH!" Again, Natsu could barely say anything. "AAAAHHHH!" And once again, another molar from the back of his mouth was pulled, all bloodied as the first one.

"Why are you protecting that woman?" He threw the pliers back onto the cart, appalled as to why the pinkette protected Erza, the person of his interest.

"Why do… you… insist on… knowing!?" Natsu retorted back, erratically panting. The amount of blood he's lost in the last day or so made him weary of his energy.

"Sun Tzu once said, in order to beat your enemy, you must first exploit their weaknesses." Dobengal recited an old quote.

"Sun who know?" Natsu was barely listening to him now, only recalling the first few words of the man's sentence.

"Sun Tsu," he repeated the ancient warrior's name. "After so long, Erza never had any weaknesses, not until she showed up your life."

"So, I'm her weakness?" Natsu assumed much.

"Yes, you are her loved one," Dobengal affirmed his assumption. "Tell me, what was it like, kissing the scarlet haired knight of yours?"

"What? You never had a love life? Play the Sims if you don't quite understand what that is." Natsu began with his jokes once more.

"Fine," Dobengal changed his question. "But your dearly love her don't you? I mean, after this long of being tortured, any other person would've sang like a bird, but you, oh you haven't sang to me yet."

Natsu sat there in silence. His words were true. Any other person would've answered his questions, would've turned their backs on a friend but, no, not Natsu. He wasn't one to speak ill of his friends, loved ones, and he wasn't going to start now.

"What if I told you something that would shake that very foundation of love you have for Erza?" An evil grin formed around his mouth.

"There's nothing you would say to me, and I mean nothing, that would ever change my mind about Erza!" Natsu didn't want to hear his lies, the spew full amount of shit that would come out of the assassin's mouth.

"Oh really?" The grin grew bigger on Dobengal's face. "Nothing at all?"

"That's right!" Natsu answered him.

"Not even if I told you that she is also an assassin?" Those words intentionally escaped his mouth.

"If she was an assassin like you claim, then she would've killed me long ago." The pinkette retorted.

"But the thing is, you would've been dead long ago if she didn't fall head over heels for you." Dobengal chuckled.

"…" Natsu didn't know how to respond to that. The man was an assassin and Natsu had to believe all the nonsense about Erza being an assassin herself were all ludicrous lies.

"It's fine by me if you don't believe me," Dobengal went to his cart once again, picking up a new torture tool. "Now, shall we begin again?"

…

"WHERE IS HE!?" Atop the highest building in a city not far from Magnolia City, Erza had antagonized an associate who knew Dobengal, holding on to the man's leg as she held him from falling down meters downward.

"I swear," the skinny man in the suit dangled at the edge. "I have no idea where Dobengal is!"

This was the fourth associate to Dobengal who had no clue where the assassin himself, was. And time was running out for her as she had no patience for lies at the moment.

Erza faked letting the man go from this height, prompting the man to plead for his life. "OH GOD PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" She repeated her question, simplified.

"I TOLD YOU! I HAVE NO CLUE WHERE HE IS! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!" He gave her the same response as before.

"Tch!" Annoyed, she threw him right back the roof of the building, where he continued to sob on the floor beneath him. "Go, and pretend this never happened."

"Oh thank god!" He got back up and ran back into the building, leaving her be.

She turned to look at the city. Her glare intensifies at the horizon, knowing that her time is running up. And every time wasted, is a minute Natsu needed her. "Natsu…" She closed her eyes and placed her right hand over her heart, praying that he was still breathing, praying for a sign to find him.

She sighed and opened her eyes once more to look at the city before her. "I have to find him…" And with that, Erza took off.

From every bar to shady warehouses, Erza knocked down on each of them, tracking down informants and associates to Dobengal.

No one knew. Every bone she broke from the associates, every scar and bruises she left them, with it all did they all still say the same thing, and that was having no clue to where the assassin was, where he was hiding with Natsu.

Day turned to night as she continued her onslaught on finding a damn clue. Any clue at this point would please her if she can get it of course.

"It's been almost 2 days…" She was in the middle of the city's central park, sitting at a wooden bench at night. Her knuckles were bloodied and bruised as she continued to use her methods of persuasion to get the Intel she needed.

Erza sighed, leaning her back on the bench, exhausted from going from one place to another.

"I have to keep looking." Erza immediately got up from the bench. Dozing off and just sitting wasn't helping her.

Suddenly, her phone rang and vibrated in her pant's right pocket. She took it out and looked at the caller ID, _**Blocked Call**_ , it read across her screen. She answered. " A lot of my… associates have been calling me, claiming that some red haired woman were beating the shit out of them and… hanging them from the tallest building. I don't suppose you have anything to do with that, eh, Erza?"

"Oh please, you saw this coming." She rolled her eyes at his question.

"I did, but I didn't think you'd actually let them live," he told her. "I'm quite surprised to be honest."

"Who says you're the only one merciful?" Erza retorted. Though he was right, normally she would've killed them, disposed of them in a way no one would know where they'll be, but, she's gotten soft. A little more than usual.

"Touché," he didn't bother to question her motives for letting them live. "Your boyfriend says hi."

"Put him on the phone, I want to know if he's save." She requested that much from him. All she wanted to hear from the phone call, the one she asked for, is all she needed. She wanted to hear his voice, hoping he was still alive.

"Well, since you asked so nicely, he's in the other room, I'll get him for you." He chuckled. From she can discern, his movements were echoed, perhaps some kind of warehouse? She then heard the door open and close.

"W-What… do you want…?" A weak voice, his voice. Natsu's voice. A voice she longed wanted to hear from.

"Here, a phone call for you." She heard Dobengal's answer to the pinkette.

The assassin held the phone on Natsu's ear. "H-He… hello?"

"Natsu? Are you, okay?" She asked, worried of what has happened to him that had him talk so weakly.

"Er-Erza?" His tone quickly changed but still, at the end of it, it was weak. "Oh, I'm… so glad to… hear your voice."

"Natsu, are you okay?" She asked him once more. She could hear him breath word after word. "Your voice, it's weak. Your breathing, you sound exhausted. What has he done to you!?"

"Oh… he's just… burning me… electrifying me… you know… the usual torture shit…" He told her, not even trying to sugarcoat it.

"Oh my…" She gasped. Erza had no clue how the man was being tortured, which only had her imagining the worst in them. "Natsu, I'm going to find you and I'm going to save you, just please, hang on!"

"I'm… totally fine… I can handle… the shit he's doing to me…" He told her, comforting her.

"Natsu…" She tried to fight back her tears, sniffling as she did.

"Erza… if… if I don't… make it out… I just… want you to know… that I love you…" Natsu wholeheartedly told her.

A tear escaped from her right eye, slowly falling down as he muttered those words to her. Meaningful words she wanted to hear, but not like this. "Natsu… I… I love you too."

"That's enough now." Dobengal now interrupted their call, pulling away the phone from Natsu's ear. The pinkette was now unconscious, only able to keep himself up for the conversation.

Dobengal went back to other room, which Erza can only hear from her phone.

"That was quite affectionate, don't you think?" Dobengal picked up the call once again, chuckling at the last few bits of their conversation.

"I will rip you apart, limb by limb, for torturing him!" She threatened him.

"Oh, so predictable," he brushed off her threat lightly. "You're having trouble, so because my widdle heart was touched by your widdle moment, I'm going to give you a hint."

"What's the hint?" She had nothing so far. The hint was possibly the only lead she'll ever get. And if she's lucky and he doesn't give her a fake clue, she'll finally be within their grasp.

"Alzack." And like that, he hung the phone up.

"Alzack?" She was dumbfounded at this. What did it mean? Was it a place? A name? All these questions were soaring through her head, figuring out what in the world the hint he gave her, meant.

Running out of time, she had to keep going. Only 2 days left, that's all she had for trying to find them…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Once again, I want to thank you all for being here and reading this story since chapter 1. I really do mean it.
> 
> I know it was a short chapter, but the chapters to come will be much longer, so until I update next time. See you soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Kind of feels a bit slow, I know but you'll (hopefully) enjoy this new AU. Well then see you next time I update.


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